THE  LIBRARIES 


HILDA  WARD  BEQUEST 


^tp^ 


^s> 


RIGHT  ABOVE  RACE 


(hiAjMy 


RIGHT  ABOVE  RACE 


BY 

OTTO  H.  KAHN 


"We  will  not  permit  the  blood  in  our 
veins  to  drown  the  conscience  in  our 
breast.  We  will  heed  the  call  of  honor 
beyond  the  call  of  race." 


NEW  YGliK 

THE  CENTURY  CO. 

1918 


9V^.  9/ 


Copyright,  1918,  by 
The  Centuby  Co. 


Pullished,  April,  1918 


From  the  Library  of 
Hilda  Ward 


o 


CO 


FOREWORD 

I  have  seen  no  other  utterances  so 
clearly  setting  forth  the  attitude  of  the 
German-born  American  as  those  that 
are  here  presented.  Mr.  Kahn  writes 
with  a  knowledge  of  German  condi- 
tions,— the  ambitions,  the  capacities  and 
the  history  of  the  German  people.  He 
drives  home  the  strength  of  the  Ameri- 
can position  in  a  manner  that  makes  an 
irrefutable  argument  for  the  righteous- 
ness of  this  nation's  attitude.  His  view 
is  more  than  American,  it  is  interna- 
tional, a  view  that  looks  to  the  conse- 
quences to  the  world  if  the  things  done 
by  Germany  and  the  spirit  which  now 
controls  her  go  without  check.     Indeed, 


Foreword 

he  speaks  on  behalf  of  a  new  and  better 
Germany  with  which  the  world  may  live 
in  concord. 

Franklin  K.  Lane, 

Secretary  of  the  Interior, 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Letter  to  a  German 3 

Americans  of  German  Origin  and  the 

War 65 

Prussianized  Germany 77^ 

The  Poison  Growth  of  Prussianism    .  ■    90 

Frenzied  Liberty 131 


The  Myth  of  "A  Rich  Man's  War"  L   15 


RIGHT  ABOVE  RACE 


LETTER  TO  A  GERMAN 

This  letter  was  written  in  June,  1915,  to  a 
prominent  business  man  in  Germany.  A  few  of 
the  passages  contained  in  the  letter  as  here  given 
are  taken  from  an  earlier  letter  (March,  1915) 
written  to  the  same  person. 

The  original  letters  were  in  German.  The 
following  translation  was  made  by  the  author. 


RIGHT  ABOVE  RACE 

LETTER  TO  A  GERMAN 

New  York,  June  28, 1915. 
DearX.: 

Many  thanks  for  your  very  interest- 
ing letter  of  April  27th.  The  spirit 
which  animates  Germany  is  indeed  a 
great  and  mighty  one.  It  is  a  spirit  of 
unity  and  brotherhood  among  her  peo- 
ple, of  willing  sacrifice  and  heroic  striv- 
ing, coupled  with  the  passionate  convic- 
tion and  faith  that  her  cause  is  just  and 
righteous,  that  it  must  and  will  win,  and 
that  not  only  is  victory  a  necessity  for 
national  existence,  but  that  in  its  train 
it  will  bring  blessings  to  the  whole  of 
the  universe. 

Wherever  and  whenever  in  the 
world's  history  such  a  spirit — born  of 

3 


4  Right  Above  Race 

the  stirring  of  the  profoundest  depths 
of  national  or  rehgious  feeling — ^has 
manifested  itself,  it  has  invariably  been 
attended  by  a  more  or  less  marked  fa- 
naticism among  the  people  concerned; 
by  a  condition  of  mind  easily  compre- 
hensible as  a  psychological  phenomenon, 
yet  acutely  prejudicial  to  the  ability  to 
preserve  an  objective  point  of  view,  and 
to  arrive  at  an  impartial  judgment. 

It  is  but  natural  that  in  the  atmos- 
phere which  surrounds  you  and  under 
existing  circumstances,  a  man  even  of 
such  sober,  clear  and  independent  men- 
tality as  yourself,  should  think  and  feel 
in  the  way  manifested  by  your  letter. 
Even  if  it  were  in  my  power,  I  would 
not  try  at  this  time  to  shake  your  faith 
and  patriotic  determination.  Since, 
however,  you  ask  me  to  continue  this  ex- 
change of  opinions,  I  will  endeavor  fur- 
ther to  make  plain  to  you  my  ideas  as  to 


Letter  to  a  German  5 

this  most  deplorable  and  accursed  war. 

The  views  I  am  expressing  are,  I  be- 
lieve, the  views  as  well  of  the  great  ma- 
jority of  thinking  people  in  America. 
And  I  would  remind  you  that  America 
as  a  whole,  by  reason  of  the  racial  com- 
position of  her  population,  is  essentially 
free  from  national  prejudice  or  racial 
bias.  With  her  many  millions  of  in- 
habitants of  German  origin,  her  dispo- 
sition could  not  be  anti-German  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  affairs — and  indeed 
never  was  so  before  the  war. 

With  her  millions  of  Jews  and  her 
liberal  tendencies  she  cannot  be  pro- 
Russian.  With  her  historical  develop- 
ment in  the  course  of  which  her  only 
serious  wars  have  been  fought  against 
Great  Britain  (which  country,  more- 
over, during  certain  critical  periods  in 
the  Civil  War  between  North  and 
South,  evidenced  inclination  to  favor  the 


6  Right  Above  Race 

South  and  thus  aroused  long  continu- 
ing resentment  in  the  Northern  States) 
and  for  many  other  reasons,  her  dispo- 
sition cannot  be  that  of  an  English  par- 
tisan— and  was  not  so  before  the  war. 

The  predominant  sentiment  of  the 
American  people  in  the  Boer  War  was 
anti-English;  in  the  Balkan  War  their 
sympathies  were  pro-Turkish;  in  the 
Italian-Turkish  War,  anti-Italian;  in 
the  Russo-Japanese  War,  pro-Japa- 
nese, although  it  was  fuUy  realized  that 
from  the  point  of  view  of  America's 
material  and  national  interests,  the 
strengthening  of  Japan  was  hardly  de- 
sirable. 

It  may  sound  to  you  very  improbable, 
yet  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  America, 
of  all  the  great  nations,  is  probably  the 
one  least  swayed  by  eagerness  to  attain 
material  advantage  for  herself  through 
her   international   policies.     I    do   not 


Letter  to  a  German  7 

claim  that  this  arises  necessarily  from 
any  particular  virtue  in  her  people.  It 
may  be  rather  the  result  of  her  geo- 
graphical and  economic  situation. 

America  returned  to  China  the  in- 
demnity growing  out  of  the  Boxer  Re- 
bellion. To  Spain,  conquered  and 
helpless,  she  paid,  entirely  of  her  own 
free  will,  $20,000,000  for  the  Philip- 
pines. She  refused  to  annex  Cuba. 
In  spite  of  strong  provocation  she  ab- 
stained from  taking  JNIexico. 

Although  not  a  land  as  yet  of  the 
highest  degree  of  culture,  America  is  a 
land  of  high  and  genuine  humanitarian- 
ism  and  of  a  certain  naive  ideahsm. 

I  hear  your  ironic  rejoinder,  "and  out 
of  pure  humanitarianism,  you  supply 
arms  to  our  enemies,  and  thus  prolong 
the  war'' 

The  answer  lies  in  the  accentuation  of 
the  last  four  words,  which  can  only 


8  Right  Above  Race 

mean  that,  but  for  the  American  supply 
of  arms,  the  Allies,  from  lack  of  am- 
munition, would  speedily  be  defeated, 
i,  e,,  America  is  to  co-operate  in  preserv- 
ing for  that  country  which  has  most 
extensively  and  actively  prepared  for 
war,  the  full  and  lasting  advantage  of 
that  preparation. 

That  would  put  a  premium  on  war 
preparations — on  an  armed  and  there- 
fore necessarily  precarious  peace — since 
it  is  but  human  nature  that,  given  a 
difference  which  he  considers  serious 
enough  for  ground  for  a  quarrel,  a  man 
armed  to  the  teeth  would  be  less  in- 
clined to  settle  the  matter  peaceably 
than  one  who  is  not  so  well  prepared  for 
a  fight. 

Apart  from  this,  the  German  com- 
plaint about  the  prolongation  of  the 
war  through  the  American  supply  of 
arms  is  proof  in  itself  that  the  refusal  of 


Letter  to  a  German  9 

such  supplies  would  constitute  a  posi- 
tive act  of  partiality  in  favor  of  Ger- 
many. 

And  the  gi^eat  majority  of  Americans 
are  convinced  that  the  ruling  powers  of 
Germany  and  Austria,  though  not  per- 
haps the  people  themselves,  are  re- 
sponsible for  the  outbreak  of  the  war; 
that  they  have  sinned  against  humanity 
and  justice;  that  at  least  France  and 
England  did  not  want  war;  that  there- 
fore its  advent  found  them  in  a  com- 
paratively unprepared  state,  and  that  it 
would  constitute  a  decided,  serious  and 
unjustifiable  action  of  far-reaching  ef- 
fect against  the  Allies  if  America  were 
to  put  an  embargo  on  war  munitions — 
especially  so  in  view  of  the  fact  that  as 
a  direct  consequence  of  the  treaty-de- 
fying invasion  of  Belgium  you  are  in 
possession  of  the  Belgian  arms  factories 
and  iron  mines  and  of  about  75%  of  all 


10  Rigid  Above  Race 

the  ore-producing  capacity  of  France. 

For  neutrals  to  supply  war  materials 
to  belligerents  is  an  ancient,  unques- 
tioned right,  recognized  by  international 
law  and  frequently  practiced  by  your- 
selves. To  alter,  during  the  course  of  a 
war,  a  practice  sanctioned  by  the  law  of 
nations  and  hitherto  always  followed, 
would  constitute  a  flagrant  breach  of 
neutrality,  in  that  it  would  necessarily 
help  one  side  and  harm  the  other. 

The  fact  that  at  one  time  we  forbade 
the  export  of  arms  to  Mexico  affords  no 
argument  in  favor  of  the  German  con- 
tention, for  there  it  was  not  a  case  of 
war  between  nations,  but  of  civil  war. 
There  was  also  the  danger  that  such 
arms  might  eventually  be  used  against 
America  herself,  given  the  possibility 
that  intervention  by  us  in  Mexico  might 
later  on  become  necessary. 

Commissions  from  Germany  for  the 


Letter  to  a  German  11 

supply  of  arms  would  have  been  as  ac- 
ceptable to  our  factories  as  were  those 
from  the  Allies.  It  is  not  America's 
fault  if  the  German  fleet  does  not  break 
through  the  British  cordon  and  ojien 
the  way  for  sea  communication  with 
Germany.  The  superiority  of  the  Brit- 
ish fleet  and  the  resulting  consequences 
must  have  been  known  to  Germany  be- 
fore she  permitted  the  outbreak  of  this 
horrible  war.  She  has  no  more  right  to 
make  a  grievance  of  these  consequences 
than  the  Allies  have  a  right  to  complain 
of  Germany's  superior  preparedness 
and  the  gi-eater  perfection  of  her  in- 
struments of  war. 

To  believe  American  public  opinion 
influenced  by  the  profits  which  come  to 
this  country  from  the  supply  of  arms,  is 
to  misunderstand  completely  the  Amer- 
ican mode  of  thought  and  feeling. 
Moreover  these  profits  go  to  very  few 


12  Right  Above  Race 

pockets,  and  public  opinion  here  being 
anything  but  unduly  complacent  to- 
wards large  corporations  and  capitalists 
is  by  no  means  inclined  to  view  with 
favor  the  gathering  in  of  these  huge 
profits  by  a  very  limited  number  of  in- 
dividuals and  concerns. 

You  quote  with  approval  General 
von  Schlieffen's  remark  that  "in  war, 
after  all,  the  only  thing  that  matters  is 
those  silly  old  victories." 

You  would  surely  not  say  that  in  the 
individual's  daily  struggle  for  existence 
or  in  competitive  industrial  strife,  "the 
only  thing  that  matters"  is  success. 
[Rather  you  would  be  the  first  to  grant 
as  you  have  always  demonstrated  in 
your  acts,  that  there  are  certain  ethical 
limitations  laid  down  by  the  conscience 
and  the  moral  conceptions  of  humanity, 
which  must  be  respected  in  the  struggle 
for  success,  however  keen,  even  though 


Letter  to  a  German  13 

the  very  existence  of  the  individual  and 
the  maintenance  of  wife  and  child  be  at 
stake. 

Schlieffen's  utterance,  in  the  meaning 
which  your  quotation  gives  it,  throws 
overboard  everything  that  civilization 
and  the  humanitarian  progress  of  cen- 
turies has  accomplished  towards  lessen- 
ing the  cruelty,  the  hatred  and  the  suf- 
fering engendered  by  war,  and  towards 
protecting  non-combatants,  as  far  as 
possible,  from  its  terrors.  It  is  tanta- 
mount to  the  doctrine  of  the  fanati- 
cal Jesuit:  "The  end  justifies  the 
means." 

And  it  is  something  akin  to  this  very 
doctrine  which  Germany  has  made  her 
own  and  applied  in  her  conduct  of  this 
war  as  she  has  done  in  none  of  her 
previous  wars.  The  conviction  that 
everything ,  literally  everything ,  which 
tends  to  insure  victory  is  permitted  to 


14   .  Right  Above  Race 

her,  and  indeed  called  for,  has  now  evi- 
dently assumed  the  power  of  a  national 
obsession.  Thus,  the  violation  of  inno- 
cent Belgium  in  defiance  of  solemn 
treaty;  the  unspeakable  treatment  in- 
flicted on  her  people ;  the  bombardment, 
without  warning,  of  open  places  (which 
Germany  was  the  first  to  practice)  ;  the 
destruction  of  great  monuments  of  art 
which  belonged  to  all  humankind,  as  in 
Rheims,  and  Louvain;  the  JLnsitania 
horror,  the  strewing  of  mines  broadcast, 
the  use  of  poisonous  gases  causing  death 
by  torture  or  incurable  disease ;  the  tak- 
ing of  hostages ;  the  arbitrary  imposition 
of  monetary  indemnities  and  penalties, 
and  so  forth.  It  is  these  facts  that  the 
non-combatant  nations  charge  against 
Germany,  and  quite  apart  from  the  re- 
sponsibility for  the  war,  it  is  in  them 
that  may  be  found  the  main  reason  why 
public  opinion  in  neutral  countries  has 


Letter  to  a  German  15 

more  and  more  turned  against   Ger- 
many as  the  war  has  continued. 

I  say  "innocent  Belgium,"  for  it  is 
entirely  evident  that  the  Belgian-Eng- 
lish pom-parlers,  of  which  Germany 
discovered  documentary  evidence,  re- 
lated merely  to  the  eventuality  of  Ger- 
many's violating  Belgian  neutrality  and 
therefore  in  no  way  constituted  a  re- 
linquishment of  neutrality  on  Belgium's 
part.  In  so  far  as  these  pourparlers 
did  not  keep  strictly  within  these  limits 
(manifestly  as  a  result  of  excessive  zeal 
on  the  part  of  the  English  military  at- 
tache in  question)  they  were  formally 
and  categorically  rejected  and  dis- 
avowed, by  both  the  Belgian  and  Eng- 
lish Governments.  This  is  shown  by 
official  papers  which  have  been  pub- 
lished. It  cannot  be  doubted  that  these 
proceedings  of  disavowal  were  entirely 
bona  fide,  for  they  took  place  at  a  time 


16  Right  Above  Race 

and  under  circumstances  such  that  no 
one  could  possibly  have  imagined  that 
the  correspondence  evidencing  them 
would  ever  see  the  light  of  day.  Inas- 
much as  you  mention  these  Anglo- 
Belgian  pourparlers  as  among  the  rea- 
sons justifying  Germany's  invasion  of 
Belgium,  it  is  worth  pointing  out  that 
this  treaty  defying  invasion  was  perpe- 
trated before  Germany  had  discovered 
the  existence  of  the  documents  which 
evidenced  that  such  pourparlers  had 
taken  place. 

Germany's  reasoning  that  she  was 
compelled  to  take  the  initiative  in  vio- 
lating the  treaty  of  neutrality  in  order 
to  avoid  the  imminent  danger  that  Eng- 
land and  France  would  do  so  first  and 
thereupon  advance  troops  against  her 
through  Belgium,  is,  even  if  such  rea- 
soning were  morally  admissible,  no  valid 
argument;  for,  only  a  few  days  before, 


Letter  to  a  German  17 

England  and  France  had  solemnly 
pledged  themselves  in  the  face  of  the 
whole  world  to  respect  Belgium's  neu- 
trality. 

If,  as  you  believe,  England  had  been 
planning  for  years  to  attack  Germany 
via  Belgium,  would  she  not  then  have 
had  in  readiness  an  invading  force  some- 
where near  adequate  for  such  an  under- 
taking? Instead  she  had  the  mere 
bagatelle  of  75,000  or  100,000  men, 
which  in  the  first  months  of  the  war 
actually  constituted  her  whole  available 
continental  fighting  force. 

To  any  one  of  unprejudiced  judg- 
ment there  remains,  therefore,  no  choice 
but  the  conclusion  that  Germany's  viola- 
tion of  Belgium  did  not  even  have  the 
excuse  of  being  a  measure  of  self-de- 
fence, but,  as  the  Chancellor  in  effect 
admitted  in  his  first  speech  on  the  sub- 
ject in  the  Reichstag,  was  undertaken 


18  Right  Above  Race 

simply  because  "in  war  the  only  thing 
that  matters  is  those  silly  old  victories." 

Not,  as  you  say,  in  obedience  to  Eng- 
land's command  (what  power  had  Eng- 
land either  to  command  or  enforce  her 
commands?),  but  from  a  compelling 
impulse  of  national  honor  did  Belgium 
oppose  the  German  breach  of  neutrality 
with  force  of  arms,  though  it  would 
evidently  have  been  to  her  material  in- 
terest to  comply  with  Germany's  sum- 
mons or  at  any  rate  to  offer  merely 
nominal  resistance. 

Holland  and  Switzerland  would  have 
done  the  same  thing  under  similar  cir- 
cumstances, as  would  any  other  self- 
respecting  nation.  Moreover,  what 
weight  could  Belgium  attach  to  Ger- 
many's promise  of  immunity  in  case  she 
yielded,  when  at  the  very  moment  Ger- 
many, by  her  own  act,  was  demonstrat- 
ing but  too  clearly  how  little  she  con- 


Letter  to  a  German  19 

sidered  herself  bound  by  her  promise  or 
indeed  by  a  solemn  international  treaty? 

What  the  Germans  have  accom- 
plished on  the  battlefields,  as  well  as 
within  their  own  country,  is  proof  of 
such  great  national  qualities,  that  it 
compels  the  tribute  of  admiration,  even 
from  your  enemies.  These  qualities 
would  indeed  have  gone  far  to 
justify  her  claim  to  hegemony,  had  they 
not  been  linked  unfortunately — at  least 
among  your  ruling  classes  and  intellec- 
tual leaders — with  ways  of  thought  and 
action  which  are  anti-humanitarian,  op- 
pressive and  generally  intolerable  to  the 
rest  of  the  world. 

The  theory  of  "frightfulness"  in  the 
conduct  of  warfare  which  Germany  now 
preaches  and  practices  is  no  new  dis- 
covery. On  the  contrary  it  is  a  very 
ancient  one — so  old,  in  fact,  that  long 
ago  it  had  come  to  be  discarded  and 


20  Right  Above  Race 

superseded  in  European  warfare  and 
passed  into  the  limbo  of  forgotten 
things.  There,  until  resurrected  by 
your  countrymen,  it  lay  for  generations, 
along  with  much  else  which  the  human 
race  had  overcome  and  left  behind  in 
the  progress  of  culture  and  humanity — 
a  progress  achieved  by  strenuous  toil, 
sacrifices  and  suffering  in  the  course  of 
many  centuries. 

Such  words  and  ideas  are  met  with 
contempt  and  derision  by  your  spokes- 
men and  termed  mere  phrases  and  senti- 
mentality. If  these  are  mere  phrases 
then  the  whole  upward  struggle  of  the 
world  for  endless  years  past  has  been 
based  upon  and  aiming  at  phrases  and 
sentimentality. 

I  read  recently  an  article  in  a  German 
paper  written  by  one  of  your  professors 
of  international  law,  in  which  he  main- 
tained, evidently  quite  unconscious  of 


Letter  to  a  German  21 

the  incredible  monstrosity  of  his  logic, 
that,  because  the  Russians  in  their  in- 
vasion of  East  Prussia  had  acted  like 
barbarians,  you  therefore  had  the  un- 
questioned right,  as  a  measure  of  re- 
prisal, to  bombard  and  destroy  Oxford 
and  Cambridge! 

And  what  have  you  gained  from  your 
"f rightfulness"?  Your  victories  have 
been  due  to  quite  other  qualities.  By 
your  "frightfulness"  you  have  steeled 
your  enemies  to  the  utmost  limit  of 
sacrifice;  you  have  embittered  neutral 
opinion;  you  have  disappointed  and 
grieved  your  friends  and  *'sown  drag- 
on's teeth,"  the  offspring  of  which  will 
arise  against  you  many  years  even  after 
the  conclusion  of  peace. 

How  differently  would  you  be  judged 
now  if  you  had  tempered  your  mighty 
power  with  mercy  and  self-restraint;  if 
with  the  consciousness  and  use  of  su- 


22  Bight  Above  Race 

perior  strength  and  ability  you  had 
coupled  chivalry  and  generosity! 

You  say  that  Germany  is  the  only 
great  power  which  has  kept  the  peace 
for  forty-four  years,  and  made  no  con- 
quest of  territory  of  any  kind  by  force 
of  arms.  It  is  pertinent  to  recall  in 
reference  to  this  statement,  that  in  the 
course  of  these  forty-four  years  Ger- 
many virtually  by  force  has  taken  a 
strategically  important  piece  of  China, 
waged  war  against  the  Hereros  and  an- 
nexed colonies  in  Africa  and  in  the  Pa- 
cific (receiving  in  exchange  for  one  of 
them  the  strategically  most  valuable  is- 
land of  Heligoland).  Yet,  speaking 
generally,  the  world  is  bound  to  recog- 
nize with  gratitude  and  admiration  that 
from  1871  to  1914  Germany  has  re- 
frained from  using  her  enormous  mili- 
tary power  in  attempts  at  conquest. 

Has  she  had  cause  to  complain  of  the 


Letter  to  a  German  23 

results  of  this  wise  and  farseeing  policy? 

During  that  comparatively  short 
period  of  time  she  had  grown  more  pow- 
erful than  any  other  country.  In  the 
well-being  of  her  people,  in  her  wealth 
and  prestige  she  had  advanced  and 
flom-ished  as  no  other  nation.  Her  in- 
dustries, her  merchant  marine  had 
brought  her  conquest  and  triumph  un- 
equalled in  the  world's  economic  his- 
tory, which  find  a  parallel  only  in  the 
wonderful  military  achievements  of  the 
Napoleonic  era. 

Without  firing  a  gun  she  had  turned 
Holland  and  Belgium  practically 
into  German  dependencies.  She  had 
achieved  predominance  in  Turkey  and 
established  a  firm  footing  in  Asia  Minor. 
Her  influence  in  South  America  and 
Asia  was  increasing  by  leaps  and 
bounds.  Even  in  the  British  colonies 
the  victorious  efficiency  of  the  German 


24  Right  Above  Race 

commercial  conquerors  was  making  it- 
self felt  more  and  more. 

And  as  to  this  newly  discovered  naval 
militarism  of  England  which,  you  say, 
'*is  seeking  to  force  England's  will  upon 
the  whole  world  by  the  force  of  her 
mighty  fleet,"  what  has  it  ever  done  to 
bar  the  way  to  your  commerce?  Ab- 
solutely nothing.  A  few  days  ago  I 
read  a  letter  of  an  American  traveler, 
from  which  I  quote  the  following  ex- 
tracts : 

**Not  many  years  ago  I  sat  on  the  club  ver- 
anda at  Singapore  and  counted  twenty-five  fun- 
nels of  a  single  German  steamer  line.  From 
Singapore  I  went  to  North  Borneo;  there  was 
but  one  line^  a  German,  and  that  line  carried 
the  British  mail.  Later  I  went  to  Siam  from 
Singapore.  It  was  on  a  steamer  of  this  same 
German  line,  carrying  British  mail.  There  was 
no  other.  Thence  I  went  to  Hongkong  by  the 
same  excellent  German  line.  Later  I  went  to 
Australia — it  was  by  one  of  this  same  line.  To 
Java  and  the  Eastern  Archipelago,  to  Penang 
— it   was    always   this   vast   German   company. 


Letter  to  a  Germati  25 

doing  not  only  all  the  German,  but  the  British 
mail  service  as  well.  The  German  traders,  with 
whom  I  mixed  freely,  marveled  at  the  infantile 
generosity  with  which  Great  Britain  opened  all 
her  ports  to  German  enterprise,  although  long- 
headed people  shook  their  heads  at  the  thought 
of  German  skippers  having  a  better  acquaint- 
ance with  British  waters  than  their  own  people. 

"Nowhere  in  the  British  colonial  world  have 
I  found  the  slightest  evidence  of  commercial 
monopoly  and  certainly  no  favoring  of  English- 
men at  the  expense  of  Germans.  Even  in  India 
the  German  commercial  traveler  has  roamed  at 
will  and  driven  Englislimen  out  of  business 
under  the  very  noses  of  the  Calcutta  Council. 

"In  the  Imperial  German  colonies,  on  the 
other  hand,  competing  English  traders  have 
been  treated  to  a  systematic  course  of  petty  of- 
ficial restrictions  so  vexatious  that  finally  they 
have  given  up  the  attempt  to  do  business  under 
German  conditions.  When  I  was  in  German 
New  Guinea  this  official  persecution  went  so  far 
that  a  British  trading  steamer  was  even  for- 
bidden to  get  water  in  order  to  force  it  to  aban- 
don trade  with  the  natives  of  that  neighbor- 
hood. 

"Some  British  colonies,  it  is  true,  do  now  dis- 
criminate in  favor  of  the  mother  country,  but  the 
colonies  who  do  that  are  self-governing  and 
therefore  beyond  the  mother  country's  control  in 


26  Right  Above  Race 

economic  matters,  like  Canada.  But  in  so-called 
Crown  colonies  like  Hongkong,  the  German 
trader  has  the  same  advantage  as  any  other/' 

England  has  not  abused  her  power  at 
sea,  at  least  since  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, any  more  than  you,  previous  to 
this  present  war,  have  abused  your 
power  on  land.  Not  only  has  she  not 
stood  in  the  way  of  your  development, 
but  on  the  contrary  she  has  given  you 
fair  and  free  access  to  her  markets,  with 
unparalleled  liberality. 

That  England  should  now  make 
every  endeavor  to  carry  on  a  strict  sea 
blockade  against  Germany  and  should 
do  so  in  a  manner  which  takes  account 
of  the  existing  circumstances  and  novel 
instruments  of  naval  warfare,  is,  in  the 
opinion  of  our  leading  lawyers,  her  per- 
fect right,  as  far  at  least  as  it  is  a  mat- 
ter only  between  her  and  Germany. 
In  the  same  way  the  North,  during  the 


Letter  to  a  German  27 

four  years  of  the  American  Civil  War, 
did  all  in  her  power  compatible  with 
the  law  of  nations  to  prevent,  both  di- 
rectly and  indirectly,  export  and  im- 
port traffic  through  Southern  harbors. 

It  is  true  that  dissatisfaction  has  been 
caused  in  this  country  by  the  interfer- 
ence of  England  with  American  com- 
merce. In  fact  such  dissatisfaction  is 
on  the  increase  and  is  likely  to  lead  in 
the  early  future  to  a  vigorous  protest 
on  the  part  of  our  Government.  But 
the  objections  to  England's  practice  in 
no  wise  depend  on  any  idea  of  ques- 
tioning the  right  under  international 
law  of  a  complete  and  effective  block- 
ade. 

To  call  this  perfectly  natural  and 
legitimate  and  frequently  practiced 
measure  of  warfare  "a  war  of  starva- 
tion" against  women  and  children  is  a 
good  deal  of  an  exaggeration.     Though 


28  Right  Above  Race 

inconvenienced,  you  are  very  far  from 
the  danger  of  starvation.  Indeed,  all 
your  spokesmen  not  only  admit  this  fact 
but  defiantly  proclaim  it. 

That  against  that  blockade  as  well  as 
for  the  destruction  of  English  commerce 
you  are  making  use  of  your  amazingly 
perfected  submarines  appears  to  me  en- 
tirely justified,  so  long  as  in  that  use 
you  keep  within  the  limits  of  legitimate 
warfare.  Nor  do  I  deny  that  England, 
in  certain  respects,  has  arbitrarily  and 
it  seems  rather  fatuously  interfered 
with  the  rights  of  neutrals ;  that  she  has 
employed  against  you  some  irritating 
measures  of  petty  and  apparently  pur- 
poseless chicanery  and  given  you  cause 
for  resentment  by  certain  vindictive  and 
perhaps  unfair  provisions  and  proce- 
dures enacted  at  the  very  start  of  the 
war  against  German  firms  and  German 
interests  within  English  jurisdiction. 


Letter  to  a  German  29 

It  must  also,  I  believe,  be  admitted 
that  you  were  justified  in  looking  upon 
some  of  the  boastful  edicts  of  Winston 
Churchill,  with  reference  to  the  conduct 
of  English  merchant  vessels,  as  provo- 
cations which  gave  you  legitimate 
ground  for  retaliation  within  recognized 
limitations. 

But  that  Germany  should  have  used 
these  provocations  and  this  phrase  of 
"starvation  warfare,"  as  a  basis  for  re- 
prisals which  actually  do  constitute 
warfare  against  women  and  children,  is 
a  blow  in  the  face  to  the  world's  con- 
science. 

Against  England's  infringements  of 
the  strict  limits  of  neutral  rights  and 
against  the  subjecting  of  neutrals  to 
certain  unjust,  irritating  and  rather 
senseless  annoyances,  America  has  not 
failed  to  protest.  She  has  in  several 
cases  received  satisfaction  and  accept- 


30  Right  Above  Race 

able  assurances.  She  should,  and,  I 
have  no  doubt,  she  will  insist  firmly  on 
her  rights  in  the  cases  still  under  dis- 
cussion. But — and  that  makes  the 
vast  difference  between  the  English  and 
German  infractions  of  the  rights  of  neu- 
trals— in  no  single  case  have  such  acts 
on  the  part  of  England  involved  the 
sacrifice  of  a  human  life. 

You  say  that  Germany  is  not  re- 
sponsible for  the  war.  It  is  neverthe- 
less a  fact  that  it  was  Germany  who  first 
declared  war.  Perhaps  it  would  have 
come  even  if  not  declared  by  Germany, 
but  in  that  "perhaps"  lies  a  fearful  bur- 
den of  responsibility. 

You  speak  of  the  vast  *'Austro- 
German  inferiority"  in  fighting  men,  as 
compared  to  France  and  Russia,  which 
you  had  to  counteract  by  rapidity  and 
initiative  of  proceeding. 

First,  this   inferiority  of  your   120 


Letter  to  a  German  31 

millions  to  the  Franco-Russian  200 
millions  (the  English,  at  that  time, 
could  not  have  entered  into  your  reck- 
oning) is  not  such  a  "vast"  one,  even 
on  paper,  when  one  considers  how  many 
millions  of  the  Russians  could  not  for 
many  months  be  included  in  the  reck- 
oning, in  consequence  of  the  huge  dis- 
tances separating  them  from  the  scene 
of  action. 

Secondly,  you  had  the  enormous 
advantage  of  strategic  railroads,  which 
the  Russians  lacked. 

Tliirdly,  you  and  the  Austrians  oc- 
cupying contiguous  territory  and  hold- 
ing the  inner  lines  were  able  to  move 
your  troops  from  East  to  West,  and 
vice  versa,  as  occasion  demanded,  while 
the  Russians  and  French  were  separated 
and  had  to  fight  on  the  outer  lines ;  and 

Fourthly,  every  one  knows  that  in 
modern  warfare  far  less  depends  on  the 


32  Right  Above  Race 

number  of  men  than  on  preparation, 
leadership  and  ammunition.  And  that 
in  these  respects  the  Russians  certainly, 
and  at  the  outset  also  the  French,  la- 
bored under  a  "vast  inferiority"  is  not 
open  to  question. 

It  cannot  he  admitted  therefore  that 
the  fact  of  the  Russian  mobilization 
made  it  a  necessity  for  you  to  precipi- 
tate war,  especially  on  the  very  day 
when  Austria,  who  was  in  a  far  more 
exposed  position  than  you,  declared  her- 
self ready  at  last,  notwithstanding  the 
Russian  mobilization,  to  enter  into  di- 
rect diplomatic  discussion  with  Russia. 

If  Germany  had  waited  but  three 
days  after  that  declaration  by  her  ally, 
before  delivering  her  ultimatum  to 
Russia,  either  the  war  would  have  been 
avoided  altogether,  or  Russia  would 
have  had  to  face  the  world  as  the  ag- 
gressor, with  all  the  forces  of  what  Bis- 


Letter  to  a  German  33 

marck  termed  "imponderabilia"  against 
her.  And  it  would  be  an  insult  to  Ger- 
many's efficiency  to  question  that  she 
could  have  found  measures  short  of 
rushing  into  war,  to  meet  and  offset  for 
another  few  days  the  menace  of  Russian 
mobilization — apart  from  the  fact  that 
there  is  some  reason  to  suspect  that  this 
Russian  mobilization  on  the  German 
frontier  was  deliberately  provoked  by 
certain  Machiavelhan  manoeuvers  in 
Berlin. 

On  the  30th  and  31st  of  July,  respec- 
tively, Sir  Edward  Grey  telegraphed  as 
follows  to  the  English  ambassador  in 
Berlin  for  transmission  to  the  Imperial 
Chancellor: 

".  .  .  You  should  speak  to  the  Chancellor 
in  the  above  sense,  and  add  most  earnestly  that 
one  way  of  maintaining  good  relations  with 
England  and  Germany  is  that  they  should  con- 
tinue to  work  together  to  preserve  the  peace 
of  Europe.     If  we  succeed  in  this  object,  the 


34  Right  Above  Race 

mutual  relations  of  Germany  and  England  will, 
I  believe,  be  ipso  facto  improved  and  strength- 
ened. For  that  object  his  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment will  work  in  that  way  with  all  sincerity 
and  good  will.  .  .  . 

"And  I  will  say  this:  If  the  peace  of  Eu- 
rope can  be  preserved,  and  the  present  crisis 
safely  passed,  my  own  endeavor  will  he  to  pro- 
mote some  arrangement  to  which  Germany  could 
he  a  party,  hy  which  she  could  be  assured  that 
no  aggressive  or  hostile  policy  would  be  pur- 
sued against  her  or  her  allies  by  France,  Russia 
and  ourselves,  jointly  or  separately.  I  have 
desired  this  and  worked  for  it,  as  far  as  I  could, 
through  the  last  Balkan  crisis  and,  Germany 
having  a  corresponding  object,  our  relations 
sensibly  improved.  The  idea  has  hitherto 
been  too  Utopian  to  form  the  subject  of  definite 
proposals,  hut  if  this  present  crisis,  so  much 
more  acute  than  any  that  Europe  has  gone 
through  for  generations,  he  safely  passed,  I  am 
hopeful  that  the  relief  and  reaction  which  will 
follow  may  make  possible  some  more  definite 
rapproachement  between  the  Powers  than  has 
been  possible  hitherto.  .  .  . 

"I  said  to  the  German  Ambassador  this  morn- 
ing that  if  Germany  could  get  any  reasonable 
proposal  put  forward  which  made  it  clear  that 
Germany  and  Austria  were  striving  to  preserve 
European  peace,  and  that  Russia  and  France 


Letter  to  a  German  35 

would  he  unreasonable  if  they  rejected  it,  I 
would  support  it  at  St.  Petersburg  and  Paris, 
and  go  to  the  length  of  saying  that  if  Russia 
and  France  would  not  accept  it,  his  Majesty's 
Government  woidd  have  nothing  more  to  do  with 
the  consequences;  otherwise,  I  told  the  German 
Ambassador,  that  if  France  became  involved  we 
should  be  drawn  in." 

Is  this  the  language  of  one  seeking  a 
quarrel?  Why  did  not  Germany  act 
upon  the  suggestions  put  forth  so  ur- 
gently, ringing  so  manifestly  true  and 
bearing  so  evidently  the  stamp  of  good 
faith?  Why  was  the  calamity  of  war 
thrust  upon  the  world  in  such  hot  haste, 
that  you  did  not  even  previously  in- 
form, far  less  consult,  your  then  allies, 
the  Italians,  in  spite  of  the  provisions  of 
the  Triple  Alliance? 

Is  it  not  proved  by  declarations  of 
Giolotti — certainly  no  enemy  to  Ger- 
many— before  the  Itahan  Parhament 
some   six   months   back,    that   Austria 


36  Right  Above  Race 

wanted  to  make  war  upon  Servia  as 
much  as  two  years  ago,  that  is  to  say, 
long  before  the  assassination  of  the 
Austrian  heir-apparent  afforded  the 
pretext  for  an  ultimatum  which  spelled 
War?  I  know  sufficient  of  the  senti- 
ment prevailing  in  England  and  France 
before  the  war,  as  well  as  of  the  tenden- 
cies of  the  political  leaders  and  other 
leading  men  in  those  countries,  to  be  ab- 
solutely positive  that,  apart  from  a  few 
individuals  given  to  noisemaking,  but 
not  possessing  weight  or  real  influence, 
the  people  and  the  Governments  of 
France  and  England  were  very  far  in- 
deed from  wanting  war. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  agree  with  you 
in  believing  that  the  Pan-Slavist  party 
in  Russia  did  plan  to  bring  on  war. 
However,  they  did  not  want  it  yet  and 
it  is  altogether  doubtful  whether  they 
would  have  succeeded  in  their  design 


Letter  to  a  German  37 

had  they  been  met  by  a  firm,  wise  and 
conciliatory  policy  on  the  part  of  Ger- 
many and  Austria. 

These  opponents  (the  Russians),  hy 
themselves,  as  results  thus  far  have 
shown,  and  as  seemed  evident  in  ad- 
vance to  sober  observers,  you  need  never 
to  have  considered  as  your  peers  in  a 
military  sense. 

Rather  than  take  the  awful  respon- 
sibility of  initiating  war,  and  thus 
uniting  England,  France  and  Russia 
wholeheartedly  against  you,  you  could 
well  have  afforded,  in  calm  confidence 
in  your  superior  efficiency  and  prepara- 
tion, to  take  the  lesser  risk  of  letting  the 
Russians  come  on  whenever,  in  fatuous 
arrogance,  they  might  have  believed 
themselves  strong  enough  to  tackle  you 
and  Austria. 

In  an  offensive  war,  undertaken  by 
Russia,  France  would  have  joined,  if  at 


38  Right  Above  Race 

all,  only  half-heartedly,  and  with  her 
public  opinion  strongly  divided.  No 
English  Government,  however  jingo- 
militarist,  could  have  obtained  the 
sanction  of  Parliament  to  take  part  in 
such  a  war.  Your  ally,  Italy,  would  in 
that  case  not  have  forsaken  you.  Pub- 
lic opinion  and  the  moral  support  of 
the  neutral  nations  would  have  been 
strongly  with  you.  You  would  as- 
suredly, under  such  circumstances, 
have  given  the  Russians  a  bad  beating, 
and  the  world  in  general  would  have  re- 
joiced exceedingl}''  at  the  aggressor's 
discomfiture. 

That  the  large  majority  of  the  people 
of  Germany  did  not  want  war,  I  do  not 
doubt,  although  {as  was  not  the  case 
in  England  and  France)  there  has  been 
in  existence  in  your  country  for  years  a 
rather  alarmingly  active  and  influential 
party  whose  open  aim  was  war,  and 


Letter  to  a  German  39 

particularly  a  reckoning  with  England. 

Many  of  your  intellectuals  and  par- 
ticularly many  of  the  teachers  of  your 
youth,  had  come  to  preach  the  deifica- 
tion of  sheer  might.  They  proclaimed 
with  fanatical  arrogance  the  doctrine 
that  the  German  nation  being  the 
chosen  people,  superior  to  all  others, 
was  therefore  not  only  permitted,  but, 
indeed,  called  upon,  to  impose  the  bless- 
ings of  its  civilization  and  "Kultur" 
upon  other  countries,  by  force  if  neces- 
sary, and  to  help  itself  to  such  of  their 
possessions  as  it  deemed  necessary  for 
the  fulfillment  of  its  destiny. 

I  believe  it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  that  doctrine  and  the  spirit  which 
bred  it  are  very  much  akin,  in  their  in- 
tolerance, self-righteous  assumption  of 
a  world-improving  mission,  lack  of  un- 
derstanding of  and  contemptuous  dis- 
allowance for  the  differing  viewpoints, 


40  Right  Above  Race 

qualities  and  methods  of  others,  to  the 
doctrines  and  the  spirit  that  lay  at  the 
bottom  of  the  religious  wars  throughout 
the  long  and  evil  years  when  Catholics 
and  Protestants  killed  one  another  and 
wrought  appalling  bloodshed,  destruc- 
tion and  ruin,  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
ferring upon  their  respective  countries 
the  blessings  of  "the  true  religion." 

Liberal  press  organs  and  calm-think- 
ing men  in  Germany  frequently  before 
the  war  expressed  their  disapproval  of, 
and  misgivings  at  such  preachings  and 
the  tendencies  and  agitation  of  the 
jingo  party,  though  naturally  you  now 
all  stand  together  and  have  put  aside 
for  the  time  being  the  party  differences 
and  conflicting  opinions  and  points  of 
view  which  prevailed  prior  to  the  war. 

I  agree  with  you  in  believing  notwith- 
standing the  machinations  of  the  war 
party,  that  the  Kaiser  and  the  Chancel- 


Letter  to  a  German  41 

lor,  up  to  a  certain  fatal  moment,  when 
they  yielded  their  judgments  to  others, 
meant,  bona  fide,  to  preserve  peace.  I 
am  quite  persuaded  as  well  that  the 
mass  of  the  German  people  did  not  want 
war  and  are  entirely  honest  in  their 
practically  unanimous  belief  that  Ger- 
many is  not  responsible  for  the  war, 
although,  unfortunately,  the  facts  prove 
the  contrary. 

It  is  conceivable  that  you  might  have 
been  justified  in  coming  forward  boldly 
and  straightfoi^^ardly  and  saying  to  the 
Triple  Entente : 

*'We  are  70  million  strong.  We  have 
demonstrated  to  the  world  our  capabili- 
ties in  every  department  of  human  en- 
deavor and  human  achievement.  We 
require  (or,  at  least,  our  people  believe, 
rightly  or  wrongly,  that  we  require) 
wider  territorial  scope  for  our  growth 
than  we  possess  in  our  own  country  and 


42  Eight  Above  Race 

in  our  colonies.  We  require,  too,  an 
assurance  of  greater  security  as  to  the 
conditions  of  our  national  existence 
and  our  economic  development. 

*'You  have  pre-empted  the  best  part 
of  the  world.  It  is  far  more  than  you 
require.  Either  see  that  an  appro- 
priate provision  is  made  for  us,  or,  fail- 
ing that,  give  us  a  free  hand  to  conclude 
mutually  agreeable  arrangements  with 
Belgium,  Portugal  or  Holland  with  re- 
spect to  their  over-sea  possessions. 

"You  will  then  find  us  ready  to  con- 
clude an  understanding  with  you,  in 
order  to  ensure  peace  and  to  make  an 
end,  at  least,  to  these  continually  re- 
curring alarms  of  war,  which  are  wear- 
ing out  the  nerves  and  the  purse  of  the 
whole  world.  To  this  end  let  us  call  a 
conference.  Meanwhile,  no  one  is  to  in- 
crease the  armaments  they  at  present 
possess,  let  alone  mobilize.     But  if  you 


Letter  to  a  German  43 

are  not  willing  to  give  us  a  fair  show 
peaceably,  then  we  warn  you  look  out 
for  trouble." 

In  my  opinion,  such  a  warning  would 
not  have  had  to  be  translated  into  ac- 
tion, for  in  due  course  things  were 
bound  to  come  your  way  by  the  very 
force  of  cause  and  effect.  With  a  little 
skill  and  tact  and  insight  (which  traits, 
as  you  will  probably  admit,  have  hardly 
been  outstanding  features  of  German 
diplomacy  since  Bismarck),  together 
with  a  little  patience,  everything  you 
could  reasonabty  ask  would  have  been 
yours  in  the  course  of  the  next  ten  or 
fifteen  years. 

But  if  the  Triple  Entente  had  met  a 
request  in  the  nature  of  the  foregoing 
with  a  non  possumus,  or  had  made 
no  reasonably  acceptable  offer,  and  you, 
after  final  warning  had  resorted  to  the 
arbitrament  of  war,  your  case  would 


44  Right  Above  Face 

have  worn  a  very  different  aspect  from 
the  present  one.  Many  unprejudiced 
men  amongst  neutral  people  would 
have  looked  upon  your  viewpoints  and 
conduct  as  not  devoid  of  justification, 
instead  of  turning  away  with  disgust 
from  the  sophistries  of  your  writers,  who 
seek  to  demonstrate  that  you  poor  in- 
nocent lambs  were  fallen  upon  in  order 
to  be  dragged  to  the  slaughter-house. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  it  is  my 
belief  that  such  a  declaration  delivered 
by  you  to  the  Triple  Entente,  firm  and 
determined  in  spirit  and  meaning,  but 
friendly  and  persuasive  in  language, 
would  have  led  not  to  war,  but  to  a 
lasting  understanding. 

SUMMARY 

To  sum  up: 

1.  Until  ten  years  ago,  England's 
relations  with  you  were  good — indeed 


Letter  to  a  German  45 

more  than  good,  as  is  shown,  for  in- 
stance, by  the  cession  of  Hehgoland. 
If,  as  you  assert,  hate  and  envy  and  ill- 
will,  because  of  Germany's  phenomenal 
development,  and  of  her  increasing 
strength  and  push  as  a  competitor  in  the 
markets  of  the  world,  had  been  the 
moving  force  in  shaping  England's  at- 
titude towards  you,  the  motive  for  hos- 
tile conduct  would  have  existed  at  that 
time  just  as  at  present. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  England's  senti- 
ment towards  Germany  changed  only 
with  your  aggressive  program  of  naval 
construction,  and  as  a  consequence  of 
the  manifestation  in  word,  in  writing 
and  in  deed,  of  certain  alarming  and 
menacing  tendencies,  to  which,  it  is  true, 
more  significance  and  importance  prob- 
ably were  attached  abroad  than  in 
Germany  itself — more,  perhaps,  than 
they  deserved. 


46  Bight  Above  Race 

That  program  England  came  to  con- 
sider, naturally,  as  directed  mainly 
against  herself  and  as  a  serious  menace 
to  her  most  vital  interests  and  to  the 
conditions  of  her  very  existence. 

Would  not  Germany  have  become 
uneasy  had  Russia  suddenly  announced 
a  policy  of  concentrating  an  enormous 
fleet  in  the  Baltic?  (The  parallel, 
though,  is  far  from  perfect,  in  that  for 
you,  sea  power  is  not  nearly  as  vital  an 
element  as  it  is  and  must  be  for  Eng- 
land.) 

Your  naval  policy,  together  with  the 
arguments  which  the  German  Govern- 
ment's spokesmen  adduced  for  it,  and 
the  above-mentioned  manifestations  and 
agitations,  caused  very  serious  and  last- 
ing apprehensions  in  England.  They 
gradually  drove  her  to  the  Entente  with 
France,  and  through  it,  unfortunately 
perhaps,    but    necessarily,    also    with 


Letter  to  a  German  47 

Russia, — not  as  an  offensive,  but  as  a 
defensive  measure. 

Let  me  say,  in  parenthesis,  that  in 
the  interest  of  England  and  France  and 
of  the  peace  of  the  world,  I  have  always 
felt  inclined  to  doubt  the  wisdom  of  this 
grouping,  however  comprehensible  and 
natui-al  it  was  under  the  circumstances. 
Likewise,  I  have  always  doubted  the 
wisdom  of  the  creation  of  your  enor- 
mous fleet — a  view  which  was  shared 
by  some  of  your  best  political  thinkers 
and  which  appears  to  have  been  justi- 
fied, by  results. 

2.  The  genesis  of  the  war  lay  in  the 
fixed  idea  by  which  Austria  was  pos- 
sessed, since  her  foreign  JNIinister  Aeh- 
renthal  succeeded  in  reaping  easy  and 
questionable  but  profitable  laurels  some 
years  ago,  that  she  could  and  ought  to 
adopt  a  *'dashing"  policy.  There  is 
nothing  more  dangerous  than  the  foolish 


48  Right  Above  Bace 

and  reckless  daring  of  feebleness,  when, 
as  happens  at  times,  it  is  suddenly  seized 
with  a  mania  for  heroics. 

In  fact,  as  I  gleaned  from  a  letter  re- 
ceived here  within  a  few  days  of  the  out- 
break of  the  war  and  originating  from 
a  particularly  authoritative  source  in 
Vienna,  Austria  entirely  failed  to  real- 
ize the  portentous  significance  and  the 
inevitable  consequences  of  her  unheard- 
of  ultimatum  to  Serbia. 

She  believed  that  she  would  be  left 
undisturbed  to  play  the  conqueror  at  the 
expense  of  that  poor  little  country. 
Unfortunately,  Germany  did  not  see  fit 
to  put  a  stop  to  that  extremely  danger- 
ous playing  with  fire.  On  the  contrary, 
the  German  Ambassador  in  Vienna 
seems  to  have  encouraged  it,  actively 
and  deliberately. 

3.  When  finally  the  crisis  had  come^ 


Letter  to  a  German  49 

with  all  its  terrible  meaning,  Austria's 
nerves,  at  the  very  last  moment,  began 
to  give  way.  She  wavered  in  the  face 
of  a  world  catastrophe. 

But  your  Junkers  and  other  jingoes 
neither  wavered  nor  hesitated.  They 
saw  in  their  grasp  the  opportunity  for 
which  they  had  been  plotting  these 
many  years  and  they  were  not  minded 
to  let  it  escape  them.  They  considered 
the  moment  peculiarly  propitious  be- 
cause of  the  internal  preoccupations  of 
England  and  France. 

And  they  succeeded  in  sweeping  the 
German  Government  off  its  feet  as  well 
as  the  sober  and  sensible  thinking  ma- 
jority of  the  German  people.  They 
succeeded  in  rushing  your  Government 
and  people  into  the  belief  that  the 
Russian  mobilization  signified  a  menace 
dangerous  to  Germany's  very  existence. 


50  Right  Above  Race 

and  that  every  day  of  delay  in  meeting 
that  danger  might  mean  disastrous  con- 
sequences. 

This  was  not  the  first  time  that  an 
attempt  had  been  made  by  that  party 
to  bring  the  Kaiser  and  his  people  sud- 
denly face  to  face  with  a  situation  which 
they  meant  should  spell  war — a  war 
which  they  felt  certain  would  end  in  a 
quick  and  decisive  Geraian  victory.  Of 
at  least  one  flagrant  example  of  such 
manoeuvering  I  have  personal  knowl- 
edge. 

That  the  jingo  party,  against  what  I 
believe  to  have  been  the  tendencies  of 
the  Kaiser's  and  the  Chancellor's  poli- 
cies, thus  succeeded  at  last  in  their 
fateful  and  atrocious  design — although 
the  manifest  interests  and,  doubtless, 
the  inclination  of  the  masses  of  your 
people  were  for  the  maintenance  of 
peace — is  explainable  only  by  the  Ger- 


Letter  to  a  German  51 

mans'  amazing  lack  of  understanding 
for  the  deeper  qualities,  sentiments, 
ideals,  modes  of  thought  and  character- 
istics of  other  nations  as  distinguished 
from  their  outward  peculiarities,  meth- 
ods and  habits. 

This  lack  of  understanding  doubly- 
amazing  in  a  people  so  intelligent  and 
instructed  and  so  successful  in  its  com- 
mercial dealings  with  the  rest  of  the 
world  is  strikingly  exemplified  in  your 
complete  misjudgment  as  to  the  co- 
hesive power  of  the  British  Empire  and 
as  to  the  loyalty  of  its  component  parts 
and  subject  races;  by  your  gross  under- 
estimate of  France  and  by  your  general 
miscalculation  as  to  how  the  peoples 
challenged  by  you  would  react  to  the 
supreme  test  of  war. 

That  Austria  and  Russia  through 
their  mobilizations  and  other  measures 
originating  from  a  mixture  of  bluff  and 


52  Right  Above  Race 

fear,  managed  to  get  each  other  into  an 
utterly  unreasoning  state  of  nerves,  is 
entirely  comprehensible.  They  did  not 
trust  each  other,  and  above  all,  they  did 
not  trust  themselves,  their  own  strength 
and  preparedness. 

But  Germany,  in  the  knowledge  of 
her  powerful  moral  and  military  superi- 
ority, and  of  her  incomparable  war  ma- 
chine, perfect  and  ready  in  every  detail, 
could  have,  and  should  have  dominated 
the  confusion  and  danger  of  the  situa- 
tion with  the  sang-froid  and  self-confi- 
dence born  of  strength,  instead  of  al- 
lowing herself  to  be  swept  along  by  the 
sinister  currents  leading  to  an  ocean  of 
blood. 

And  if  Germany,  with  trembling 
Europe  hanging  on  her  words,  had  pro- 
claimed boldly  "There  shall  be  peace," 
and  thus  by  her  veto  had  saved  the 
world  from  the  curse  of  this  war,  she 


Letter  to  a  German  53 

would  not  only  have  done  a  splendidly 
meritorious  deed,  unequalled  in  the 
world's  history,  which  would  have 
brought  her  immortal  fame  and  would 
have  been  greeted  by  the  joyous  acclaim 
of  all  peoples,  but  she  would  have 
gained  by  that  very  act  the  uncontested 
leadership  amongst  the  nations.  From 
their  gratitude  for  being  freed  from  the 
nightmare  of  war's  menace,  she  would 
readily  have  obtained  (as  intimated  by 
Sir  Edward  Grey  in  his  telegram)  com- 
phance  with  any  reasonable  demand  she 
might  have  jDut  forward  for  the  exten- 
sion of  the  scope  of  her  development 
and  influence. 

4.  Once  the  Entente  existed  it  seems 
to  me  so  obvious  that  England  in  an 
aggressive  war  waged  by  Germany  and 
Austria  against  France  and  Russia  was 
hound  to  throw  in  her  lot  with  the  latter 
country,  that  I  was  quite  unable,  at  the 


54  Right  Above  Race 

time,  to  understand  Germany's  outburst 
of  surprise  and  fury  against  England. 
Alliance  or  Entente,  call  it  what  you 
will — had  England  backed  out  in  that 
crisis  it  would  have  been  a  miserable 
breach  of  faith  on  her  part,  by  which 
she  would  have  forfeited  her  place  in  the 
world's  respect,  and  which  would  have 
been  bitterly  resented  by  her  former 
friends  and  left  her  completely  isolated 
henceforth. 

Moreover,  apart  from  all  moral  obli- 
gations and  the  compelling  force  of 
political  considerations,  she  could  have 
felt  all  the  less  tempted  to  enter  into  a 
separate  agreement  with  Germany  at 
that  critical  juncture  and  remain  neu- 
tral, as  the  latter  at  that  very  moment 
had  demonstrated  that  she  did  not  con- 
sider herself  bound  by  any  treaty,  when 
military  interests  seemed  to  her  to  make 
the  breach  of  such  treaty  advisable.     In 


Letter  to  a  German  55 

the  face  of  Germany's  violation  of  Bel- 
gian neutrality,  how  could  England 
have  felt  assured  that,  if  an  arrange- 
ment between  the  two  countries  had 
been  effected,  it  would  be  respected  by 
Germany,  in  case  at  any  given  moment 
it  might  appear  to  the  German  Govern- 
ment to  be  requisite  from  the  point  of 
view  of  military  necessity  or  even  mere 
advantage,  to  ignore  such  agreement? 

You  call  it  a  hideous  crime  and  eter- 
nal shame  that  the  English  "called  to 
their  aid"  against  you  the  Japanese  and 
the  Indians. 

As  far  as  Japanese  militaiy  aid  is 
concerned,  it  has  been  practically  lim- 
ited to  action  in  China,  and  thus  has  not 
to  any  material  degree  influenced  the 
European  war. 

And  with  regard  to  the  relatively  in- 
considerable nimiber  of  Indians  that 
England  brought  over,  the  simple  fact 


56  Right  Above  Race 

is  that  these  few  brigades  or  divisions 
form  part  of  the  small  standing  army 
that  she  possessed — the  very  smallness 
of  which  is  further  proof  of  how  little 
she  had  contemplated  war.  In  her 
critical  situation,  and  with  her  great 
lack  of  trained  troops,  she  called  in 
these  detachments  which  were  com- 
manded by  English  officers. 

I  feel  certain  that  an  unprejudiced 
judgment  can  see  neither  crime  nor 
shame  in  that  act.  If  there  were,  you 
would  be  no  less  subject  to  reproach  for 
accepting  the  military  aid  of  Turks  and 
Arabs. 

5.  When  a  country  in  so  short  a  time 
has  made  such  unexampled  progress  as 
Germany,  and  through  her  own  capac- 
ity and  the  favor  of  fate  has  achieved 
so  much  of  wealth,  power  and  well- 
being  for  her  people,  she  can  well  afford 


Letter  to  a  German  57 

to  indulge  in  the  luxury  of  modesty  and 
a  conciliatory  disposition. 

A  nation  thus  blessed  ought  to 
thank  God  that  all  is  going  so  well  with 
her,  and  should  recognize  that  such  bril- 
liant success  is  bound  to  produce  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  irritation  and  jealousy, 
just  as  it  does  in  the  case  of  an  emi- 
nently successful  individual. 

While  rejoicing  in  her  achievement, 
she  ought  carefully  to  refrain  from 
boasting  or  flaunting  her  superiority  in 
the  face  of  the  world. 

While  unceasingly  continuing  to 
strive  and  build  up,  she  ought  to  do  so 
tactfully  and  with  all  possible  consider- 
ation for  her  less  successful  neighbors. 

She  should  know  how  to  restrain  her- 
self and  wisely  to  keep  her  ambitions 
within  bounds;  to  live  and  let  live;  to 
regard  without  jealousy  or  envy,  pos- 


58  Right  Above  Race 

sessions  which  are  the  heritage  of  others 
less  efficient  than  herself;  and  to  leave 
it  to  time,  slowly  but  surely,  to  do  its 
work  in  rewarding  merit  and  punishing 
inefficiency  and  sloth. 

Have  you  thought  and  acted  thus? 

Have  you  not,  on  the  contrary,  in  the 
justified  consciousness  of  your  greater 
efficiency  and  more  strenuous  effort  al- 
lowed the  fact  of  the  great  inherited 
advantages  possessed  by  others  to  be- 
come a  thorn  in  the  flesh,  and  an  ever 
rankling  bitter  grievance,  which 
dimmed  your  contentment  and  soured 
the  joy  at  your  achievements? 

Have  you  not  estranged  and  af- 
fronted and  antagonized  other  nations 
— not  by  success  in  open  competition 
with  them,  which  I  grant  was  far  from 
pleasing  them,  but  to  which  in  the  end 
they  had  come  to  accommodate  them- 
selves as  to  an  unavoidable  evil — ^but  by 


Letter  to  a  German  59 

the  manner  and  matter  of  your  writing, 
speaking  and  acting?  Have  you  not 
made  such  nations  yom*  enemies  by 
thrusting  before  them  aims  and  visions 
of  the  future,  calculated  to  arouse  in 
them  most  serious  alarm  and  apprehen- 
sion, and  thus  eventually  caused  them  to 
unite  against  you — not,  as  you  think, 
through  envy  or  hate,  but  through  the 
much  more  powerful  motives  of  self- 
preservation,  and  of  fear  of  your  aims 
and  intentions  ? 

In  this  letter,  which,  I  am  sorry  to 
say,  has  assumed  formidable  propor- 
tions, I  have  tried,  next  to  expressing 
my  own  convictions,  to  represent  to 
you,  as  I  see  them,  what  are  at  this 
time  the  predominant  and  control- 
ling views  and  sentiments  among  the 
American  people.  I  have  met  with 
much  the  same  ideas  among  the  great 
majority  of  neutrals  with  whom  I  have 


60  Right  'Above  Race 

discussed  the  subject — neutrals  from 
many  countries  whom  I  have  met  here 
in  the  last  six  months. 

If  I  have  expressed  myself  freely, 
in  some  respects  even  bluntly,  I  hope 
you  will  make  allowance  for  the 
honest  and  deep  anger  and  grief  that 
move  me  when  I  see  how,  through  a 
needless  war  wantonly  started,  Ger- 
many and  England-France,  the  three 
countries  of  Europe  whom  the  world 
most  needs,  the  three  races  from  whom 
humanity  has  most  to  expect,  are  en- 
gaged in  tearing  one  another  to  pieces 
in  senseless  fury. 

I  have  welcomed  with  hope  certain 
signs  in  the  last  few  weeks  which  seem 
to  indicate  that  more  moderate,  fairer 
and  calmer  sentiments,  a  more  correct 
understanding,  and  more  far-sighted 
views  are  beginning  to  get  a  foothold  in 
certain  circles  in  Germany. 


Letter  to  a  German  61 

You  have  so  incontestably  vindicated 
the  prowess  of  your  arms,  and  so  im- 
pressively demonstrated  the  power, 
courage,  self-sacrificing  patriotism  and 
high  ability  of  your  nation,  that  no 
possible  suspicion  can  attach  to  you  of 
yielding  under  compulsion,  should  you 
rise  to  the  moral  heroism  of  taking  the 
first  step  towards  dispelling  the  dread- 
ful misery  which  weighs  upon  Europe 
through  this  appalling  war. 

What  is  done,  is  done.  The  guilt 
will  be  adjudged  by  history.  Eleven 
months  ago  it  was  you  who  spoke  the 
fateful  word  that  meant  war.  Will  it 
now  be  you  to  first  speak  the  redeeming 
word  that  shall  bring  hope  of  peace? 

Whether  such  a  word  from  you — a 
word,  not  of  victorious  peace,  but  of 
righteous  peace,  a  word  of  human  feel- 
ing and  of  political  moderation,  of  con- 
ciliation, aye,  and  of  atonement  where 


62  Eight  Above  Race 

due — would  now  be  listened  to  by  your 
oj^ponents,  in  view  of  their  bitterness  at 
your  actions  and  their  mistrust  of  your 
intentions,  and  would  actually  bring 
peace,  I  do  not  know. 

But  of  this  I  am  sure:  that  such  a 
step  would  be  welcomed  with  gratitude, 
gladness  and  sympathy  by  all  at  least 
of  the  non-combatant  nations,  and  that 
it  would  be  set  down  as  a  moral  asset  for 
you  in  the  ledger  both  of  history  and  of 
contemporary  opinion.  Nor  can  I 
doubt  that,  even  regarded  merely  from 
the  point  of  view  of  politics,  it  would  be 
wise,  well-judged  and  timely. 

Yours  sincerely, 
(Sgd.)  Otto  H.  Kahn. 
*  *  * 

Note:  To  this  letter  a  short  note  merely  of 
acknowledgment  was  received,  containing  the 
intimation  that,  in  view  of  the  wide  divergence 
of  views  between  the  writer  and  the  recipient, 
no  useful  purpose  could  be  served  by  continuing 
the  correspondence. 


AMERICANS  OF  GERMAN 
ORIGIN  AND  THE  WAR 


Extracts  from  an  address  before  The  Merchants 

Association  of  New  York  at  its  Liberty 

Loan  Meeting  June  1,  1917 


AMERICANS  OF  GERMAN 
ORIGIN  AND  THE  WAR 

WE  have  met  to-day  in  pursuance 
of  a  high  purpose,  a  purpose 
which  at  this  fateful  moment  is  one  and 
the  same  wherever,  throughout  the 
world,  the  language  of  free  men  is 
spoken  and  understood. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  a  common  deter- 
mination to  fight  and  to  bear  and  to 
dare  everything  and  never  to  cease  nor 
rest  until  the  accursed  thing  which  has 
brought  upon  the  world  the  unutterable 
calamity,  the  devil's  visitation  of  this 
appalling  war,  is  destroyed  beyond  all 
possibihty  of  resurrection. 

That  accursed  thing  is  not  a  nation, 
but  an  evil  spirit,  a  spirit  which  has 

66 


66  Right  Above  Race 

made  the  government  possessed  by  it 
and  executing  its  abhorrent  and  bloody- 
bidding  an  abomination  in  the  sight  of 
God  and  men. 

What  we  are  now  contending  for  by 
the  side  of  the  splendidly  brave  and 
sorely  tried  Allied  Nations,  after  infinite 
forbearance,  after  delay  which  many  of 
us  found  it  hard  to  bear,  are  the  things 
which  are  amongst  the  highest  and  most 
cherished  that  the  civilized  world  has 
attained  through  the  toil,  sacrifices  and 
suffering  of  its  best  in  the  course  of 
many  centuries. 

They  are  the  things  without  which 
darkness  would  fall  upon  hope,  and 
life  would  become  intolerable. 

They  are  the  things  of  humanity, 
liberty,  justice  and  mercy,  for  which 
the  best  men  amongst  all  the  nations — ■ 
including  the  German  nation — have 
fought  and  bled  these  many  generations 


Americans  of  German  Origin    67 

past,  which  were  the  ideals  of  Luther, 
Goethe,  Schiller,  Kant,  and  a  host  of 
others  who  had  made  the  name  of  Ger- 
many great  and  beloved  until  Prus- 
sianism  came  to  make  its  deeds  a  by- 
word and  a  hissing. 

This  appalling  conflict  which  has 
been  drenching  the  world  with  blood  is 
not  a  mere  fight  of  one  or  more  peoples 
against  one  or  more  other  peoples. 

It  goes  far  deeper.  It  challenges 
the  soul  and  conscience  of  the  world. 
It  transcends  vastly  the  bounds  of  racial 
allegiance.     It  is  ethically  fundamental. 

In  determining  one's  attitude  to- 
wards it,  the  time  has  gone  by — if  it 
ever  was — when  race  and  blood  and  in- 
herited affiliations  were  permitted  to 
count. 

A  century  and  a  half  ago  Americans 
of  English  birth  rose  to  free  this  coun- 
try from  the  oppression  of  the  rulers  of 


68  Right  Above  Race 

England.  To-day  Americans  of  Ger- 
man birth  are  called  upon  to  rise,  to- 
gether with  their  fellow-citizens  of  all 
races,  to  free  not  only  this  country  but 
the  whole  world  from  the  oppression  of 
the  rulers  of  Germany,  an  oppression 
far  less  capable  of  being  endured  and  of 
far  graver  portent. 

Speaking  as  one  born  of  German 
parents,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  state  it  as 
my  deep  conviction  that  the  greatest 
service  which  men  of  German  birth  or 
antecedents  can  render  to  the  country 
of  their  origin  is  this:  To  proclaim, 
and  to  stand  up  for  those  great  ideals 
and  national  qualities  and  traditions 
which  they  inherited  from  their  ances- 
tors, and  to  set  their  faces  like  flint 
against  the  monstrous  doctrines  and 
acts  of  a  rulership  that  has  robbed  them 
of  the  Germany  they  loved  and  in  which 


Americans  of  German  Origin    69 

they  took  just  pride,  the  Germany 
which  had  the  good  will,  respect  and 
admiration  of  the  entire  world. 

I  do  not  hesitate  to  state  it  as  my 
solemn  conviction  that  the  more  unmis- 
takably and  whole-heartedly  Americans 
of  German  origin  throw  themselves  into 
the  struggle  which  this  country  has  en- 
tered in  order  to  rescue  Germany,  no 
less  than  America  and  the  rest  of  the 
world  from  those  sinister  forces  that 
are,  in  President  Wilson's  language,  the 
enemy  of  all  mankind,  the  better  they 
protect  and  serve  the  repute  of  the  old 
German  name  and  the  true  advantage 
of  the  German  people. 

Gentlemen,  I  measure  my  words. 
They  are  borne  out  all  too  emphatically 
by  the  hideous  eloquence  of  deeds  which 
have  appalled  the  conscience  of  the 
civilized  world.     They  are  borne  out  by 


70  Eight  Above  Race 

numberless  expressions,  written  and 
spoken,  of  German  professors  em- 
ployed by  the  State  to  teach  its  youth. 

The  burden  of  that  teaching  is  that 
might  makes  right,  and  that  the  Ger- 
man nation  has  been  chosen  to  exercise 
morally,  mentally  and  actually,  the 
over-lordship  of  the  world  and  must  and 
will  accomplish  that  task  and  that  des- 
tiny whatever  the  cost  in  bloodshed, 
misery  and  ruin. 

The  spirit  of  that  teaching,  in  its  in- 
tolerance, its  mixture  of  sanctimonious- 
ness and  covetousness,  and  its  self-right- 
eous assumption  of  a  world-improving 
mission,  is  closely  akin  to  the  spirit  from 
which  were  bred  the  religious  wars  of 
the  past  through  the  long  and  dark 
years  when  Protestants  and  Catholics 
killed  one  another  and  devastated  Eu- 
rope. 

I  speak  in  sorrow,  for  I  am  speaking 


Americans  of  German  Origin    71 

of  the  country  of  my  origin  and  I  have 
not  forgotten  what  I  owe  to  it. 

I  speak  in  bitter  disappointment,  for 
I  am  thinking  of  the  Germany  of 
former  days,  the  Germany  which  has 
contributed  its  full  share  to  the  store  of 
the  world's  imperishable  assets  and 
which,  in  not  a  few  fields  of  en- 
deavor and  achievement,  held  the  lead- 
ing place  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth. 

And  I  speak  in  the  firm  faith  that, 
after  its  people  shall  have  shaken  off 
and  made  atonement  for  the  dreadful 
spell  which  an  evil  fate  has  cast  upon 
them,  that  former  Germany  will  arise 
again  and,  in  due  course  of  time,  will 
again  deserve  and  attain  the  good-will 
and  respect  of  the  world  and  the  affec- 
tionate loyalty  of  all  those  of  German 
blood  in  foreign  lands. 

But  I  know  that  neither  Germany 


72  Right  "Above  Race 

nor  this  country  nor  the  rest  of  the 
world  can  return  to  happiness  and  peace 
and  fruitful  labor  until  it  shall  have 
been  made  manifest,  bitterly  and  unmis- 
tahably  manifest,  to  the  rulers  who  bear 
the  blood-guilt  for  this  wanton  war  and 
to  their  misinformed  and  misguided 
peoples  that  the  spirit  which  unchained 
it  cannot  prevail,  that  the  hateful  doc- 
trines and  methods  in  pursuance  of 
which  and  in  compliance  with  which  it 
is  conducted  are  rejected  with  abhor- 
rence by  the  civilized  world,  and  that 
the  over-weening  ambitions  which  it 
was  meant  to  serve  can  never  be 
achieved. 

The  fight  for  civilization  which  we  all 
fondly  believed  had  been  won  many 
years  ago  must  be  fought  over  again. 
In  this  sacred  struggle  it  is  now  our 
privilege  to  take  no  mean  part,  and  our 
glory  to  bring  sacrifices. 


Americans  of  German  Origin    73 

Our  one  and  supreme  task,  the  one 
purpose  to  which  all  others  must  give 
way,  is  to  bring  this  war  to  a  successful 
conclusion.  One  of  the  means  toward 
that  end  is  to  make  the  Liberty  Loan  a 
veritable  triumph,  an  overwhelming  ex- 
,  pression  of  our  gigantic  economic 
strength. 

To  accomplish  that,  let  each  one  of 
us  feel  himself  personally  responsible, 
let  each  one  of  us  work  as  if  our  life  de- 
pended on  the  result.  And,  in  a  very 
real  sense,  does  not  our  national  life,  aye, 
our  individual  life  depend  on  the  out- 
come of  this  war? 

Would  life  be  tolerable  if  the  power 
of  Prussianism  run  mad  and  murder- 
ous, held  the  world  by  the  throat,  if  the 
primacy  of  the  earth  belonged  to  a  gov- 
ernment steeped  in  the  doctrines  of  a 
barbarous  past  and  supported  by  a  rul- 
ing cast  which  preaches  the  deification 


74  Right  Above  Race 

of  sheer  might,  which  despises  liberty, 
hates  democracy  and  would  destroy 
both  if  it  could? 

To  that  spirit  and  to  those  doctrines, 
we,  citizens  of  America  and  servants, 
as  such,  of  humanity,  will  oppose  our 
solemn  and  unshakable  resolution  ''to 
make  the  world  safe  for  democracy," 
and  we  will  say,  with  a  clear  conscience, 
in  the  noble  words  which  more  than  five 
hundred  years  ago  were  uttered  by  the 
Parhament  of  Scotland: 

^'It  is  not  for  glory,  or  for  riches, 
or  for  honor  that  we  fight,  but 
for  liberty  alone  which  no  good 
man    loses    but    with    his    life" 


PRUSSIANIZED  GERMANY 


From  an   address   before  the   Harrisburg,  Pa., 
Chamber  of  Commerce  September  26,  1917 


PRUSSIANIZED  GERMANY 

I  SPEAK  as  one  who  has  seen  the 
spirit  of  the  Prussian  governing 
class  at  work  from  close  by,  having  at 
its  disposal  and  using  to  the  full  practi- 
cally every  agency  for  moulding  the 
public  mind. 

I  have  watched  it  proceed  with  re- 
lentless persistency  and  profound  cun- 
ning to  instill  into  the  nation  the  de- 
moniacal obsession  of  power-worship 
and  world-dominion,  to  modify  and 
pervert  the  mentality — indeed  the  very 
fibre  and  moral  substance — of  the  Ger- 
man people,  a  people  which  until  mis- 
led, corrupted  and  systematically  poi- 
soned by  the  Prussian  ruling  caste,  was 
and  deserved  to  be  an  honored,  valued 

77 


78  Right  Above  Race 

and  welcome  member  of  the  family  of 
nations. 

I  have  hated  that  spirit  ever  since 
it  came  within  my  ken  many  years 
ago;  hated  it  all  the  more  as  I 
saw  it  ruthlessly  pulling  down  a  thing 
which  was  dear  to  me — the  old  Ger- 
many to  which  I  was  linked  by  ties  of 
blood,  by  fond  memories  and  cherished 
sentiments. 

The  difference  in  the  degree  of  guilt 
as  between  the  German  people  and 
their  Prussian  or  Prussianized  rulers 
and  leaders  for  the  monstrous  crime  of 
this  war  and  the  atrocious  barbarism  of 
its  conduct  is  the  difference  between  the 
man  who,  acting  under  the  influence  of 
a  poisonous  drug,  runs  amuck  in  mad 
frenzy  and  the  unspeakable  malefactor 
who  administered  that  drug,  well  know- 
ing and  fully  intending  the  ghastly  con- 
sequences which  were  bound  to  follow. 


Prussianized  Germany  79 

The  world  fervently  longs  for  peace. 
But  there  can  be  no  peace  answering  to 
the  true  meaning  of  the  word — no  peace 
permitting  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
great  and  small,  to  walk  unarmed  and 
unafraid — until  the  teaching  and  the 
leadership  of  the  apostles  of  an  outlaw 
creed  shall  have  become  discredited  and 
hateful  in  the  sight  of  the  German  peo- 
ple; until  that  people  shall  have  awak- 
ened to  a  consciousness  of  the  un- 
fathomable guilt  of  those  whom  they 
have  followed  into  calamity  and  shame ; 
until  a  mood  of  penitence  and  of  a 
decent  respect  for  the  opinions  of  man- 
kind shall  have  supplanted  the  sway  of 
what  President  Wilson  has  so  tren- 
chantly termed  "truculence  and  treach- 
ery." 

God  strengthen  the  conscience  and 
the  understanding,  the  will  and  the 
power  of  the  German  people  so  that 


80  Bight  Above  Race 

they  may  find  the  only  way  which  will 
give  to  the  world  an  early  peace,  the 
only  road  which,  in  time,  will  lead  Ger- 
many back  into  the  family  of  nations 
from  which  it  is  now  an  outcast. 

From  each  successive  visit  to  Ger- 
many for  twenty-five  years  I  came 
away  more  appalled  by  the  sinis- 
ter transmutation  Prussianism  had 
wrought  amongst  the  people  and  by  the 
portentous  menace  I  recognized  in  it 
for  the  entire  world. 

It  had  given  to  Germany  unparal- 
leled prosperity,  beneficent  and  ad- 
vanced social  legislation,  and  not  a  few 
other  things  of  value,  but  it  had  taken 
in  payment  the  soul  of  the  race.  It  had 
made  a  "deviVs  bargain." 

And  when  this  war  broke  out  in  Eu- 
rope I  knew  that  the  issue  had  been 
joined  between  the  powers  of  brutal 
might  and  insensate  ambition  on  the 


Prussianized  Germany  81 

one  side  and  the  forces  of  humanity  and 
hberty  on  the  other;  between  darkness 
and  hght. 

Many  there  were  at  that  time — and 
amongst  them  men  for  whose  character 
I  had  high  respect  and  whose  motives 
were  beyond  any  possible  suspicion — 
who  saw  their  own  and  America's  duty 
in  strict  neutrahty,  mentally  and  actu- 
ally, but  personally  I  believed  from  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  whether  we  liked 
all  the  elements  of  the  Allies'  combina- 
tion or  not — and  I  certainly  did  not  like 
the  Russia  of  the  Czars — that  the  cause 
of  the  Allies  was  America's  cause. 

I  believed  that  this  was  no  ordinary 
war  between  peoples  for  a  question  of 
national  interest,  or  even  national  honor, 
but  a  conflict  between  fundamental 
principles,  aims  and  ideas.  And  so  be- 
lieving I  was  bound  to  feel  that  the 
natural  lines  of  race,  blood  and  kinship 


82  Right  Above  Race 

could  not  be  the  determining  lines  for 
one's  attitude  and  alignment,  but  that 
each  man,  regardless  of  his  origin,  had 
to  decide  according  to  his  judgment  and 
conscience  on  which  side  was  the  right 
and  on  which  was  the  wrong  and  take 
his  stand  accordingly,  whatever  the 
wrench  and  anguish  of  the  decision. 
And  thus  I  took  my  stand  three  years 
ago. 

But  whatever  one's  views  and  feel- 
ings, whatever  the  country  of  one's  birth 
or  kin,  only  one  course  was  left  for  all 
those  claiming  the  privilege  of  Ameri- 
can citizenship  when  after  infinite  for- 
bearance the  President  decided  that  our 
duty,  honor  and  safety  demanded  that 
we  take  up  arms  against  the  Imperial 
German  Government,  and  by  action  of 
Congress  the  cause  and  the  fight  against 
that  Government  were  declared  our 
cause  and  our  fight. 


Prussianized  Germany  83 

The  duty  of  loyal  allegiance  and 
faithful  service  to  his  country,  even  unto 
death,  rests,  of  course,  upon  every 
American.  But,  if  it  be  possible  to 
speak  of  a  comparative  degree  concern- 
ing what  is  the  highest  as  it  is  the  most 
elementary  attribute  of  citizenship,  that 
duty  may  almost  be  said  to  rest  with  an 
even  more  solemn  and  compelling  obli- 
gation upon  Americans  of  foreign  ori- 
gin than  upon  native  Americans. 

For  we  Americans  of  foreign  ante- 
cedents are  here  not  by  the  accidental 
right  of  birth,  but  by  our  own  free 
choice  for  better  or  for  worse. 

We  are  your  fellow  citizens  because 
we  made  solemn  oath  of  allegiance  to 
America.  Accepting  that  oath  as  given 
in  good  faith  you  have  opened  to  us  in 
generous  trust  the  portals  of  American 
opportunity  and  freedom,  and  have  ad- 
mitted us  to  membership  in  the  family 


84  Right  Above  Race 

of  Americans,  giving  us  equal  rights  in 
the  great  inheritance  which  has  been 
created  by  the  blood  and  the  toil  of  your 
ancestors,  asking  nothing  from  us  in 
return  but  decent  citizenship  and  adher- 
ence to  those  ideals  and  principles  which 
are  symbohzed  by  the  glorious  flag  of 
America. 

Woe  to  the  foreign-born  American 
who  betrays  the  trust  which  you  have 
reposed  in  him ! 

Woe  to  him  who  considers  his  Ameri- 
can citizenship  merely  as  a  convenient 
garment  to  be  worn  in  fair  weather  but 
to  be  exchanged  for  another  one  in  time 
of  storm  and  stress! 

Woe  to  the  German- American,  so- 
called,  who,  in  this  sacred  war  for  a 
cause  as  high  as  any  for  which  ever  peo- 
ple took  up  arms,  does  not  feel  a  solemn 
urge,  does  not  show  an  eager  determina- 
tion to  be  in  the  very  fore-front  of  the 


Prussianized  Germany  85 

struggle;  does  not  prove  a  patriotic 
jealousy,  in  thought,  in  action  and  in 
speech  to  rival  and  to  outdo  his  native- 
born  fellow  citizen  in  devotion  and  in 
willing  sacrifice  for  the  country  of  his 
choice  and  adoption  and  sworn  alle- 
giance, and  of  their  common  affection 
and  pride. 

As  Washington  led  Americans  of 
British  blood  to  fight  against  Great 
Britain,  as  Lincoln  called  upon  Ameri- 
cans of  the  North  to  fight  their  very 
brothers  of  the  South,  so  Americans  of 
German  descent  are  now  summoned  to 
join  in  our  country's  righteous  struggle 
against  a  people  of  their  own  blood, 
which,  under  the  evil  spell  of  a  dreadful 
obsession,  and.  Heaven  knows!  through 
no  fault  of  ours,  has  made  itself  the 
enemy  of  this  peace-loving  Nation,  as 
it  is  the  enemy  of  peace  and  right  and 
freedom  throughout  the  world. 


86  Right  Above  Race 

To  gain  America's  independence,  to 
defeat  oppression  and  tyranny,  was  in- 
deed to  gain  a  great  cause. 

To  preserve  the  Union,  to  eradicate 
slavery,  was  perhaps  a  greater  still. 

To  defend  the  very  foundations  of 
liberty  and  humanity,  the  very  ground- 
work of  fair  dealing  between  nations, 
the  very  basis  of  peaceable  living  to- 
gether among  the  peoples  of  the  earth 
against  the  fierce  and  brutal  onslaught 
of  ruthless,  lawless,  faithless  might;  to 
spend  the  lives  and  the  fortunes  of  this 
generation  so  that  our  descendants  may 
be  freed  from  the  dreadful  calamity  of 
war  and  the  fear  of  war,  so  that  the 
energies  and  billions  of  treasure  now 
devoted  to  plans  and  instruments  of  de- 
struction may  be  given  henceforth  to 
fruitful  works  of  peace  and  progress 
and  to  the  betterment  of  the  conditions 
of  the  people — that  is  the  highest  cause 


Prussianized  Germany  87 

for  which  any  people  ever  unsheathed 
its  sword. 

He  who  shirks  the  full  measure  of  his 
duty  and  allegiance  in  that  noblest  of 
causes,  be  he  German- American,  Irish- 
American,  or  any  other  hyphenated 
American,  be  he  I.  W.  W.  or  Socialist 
or  whatever  the  appellation,  does  not 
deserve  to  stand  amongst  Americans  or, 
indeed,  amongst  free  men  anywhere. 

He  who  tries,  secretly  or  overtly,  to 
thwart  the  declared  will  and  aim  of  the 
Nation  in  this  holy  war  is  a  traitor,  and 
a  traitor's  fate  should  be  his. 


THE  POISON  GROWTH  OF 
PRUSSIANISM 


Address  at  a  Mass  Meeting  in  Auditorium,  Mil- 
waukee, Wisconsin,  January  13,  1918 


THE  POISON  GROWTH  OF 
PRUSSIANISM 


THE  speech  I  am  about  to  make 
is  attuned  to  the  spirit  and  the 
fact  of  war. 

A  few  days  ago,  as  you  all  know, 
President  Wilson  once  more  spoke  to 
this  nation  and  to  the  world  in  a  great 
and  noble  message  of  splendid  vision — 
holding  up  a  veritable  beacon  light  of 
right  and  justice  for  all  peoples. 

We  all  pray  with  eager  and  earnest 
hope  that  the  German  people  will 
recognize  the  spirit  and  meaning  of 
that  lofty  utterance  and  that,  casting 
aside  the  odious  leadership  of  the  mili- 
tarists,    they    will    grasp     the    hand 

91 


92  Right  Above  Race 

stretched  out  to  them  in  such  generous 
and  unselfish  meaning. 

Even  as  I  speak  the  leaven  of  that 
great  message  may  be  working  in  Ger- 
many with  potent  effect.  I  have  no 
information  other  than  what  you  all 
have,  but  I  hope  I  am  not  oversanguine 
in  giving  heed  to  a  feeling  that  some 
parts  of  what  I  am  going  to  say  are 
perhaps  in  process  of  being  superseded 
by  events  that  may  be  forming. 

Let  us  all  trust  that  it  be  so,  and  that 
we  may  soon  be  enabled  to  substitute 
for  the  harsh  accents  of  arraignment 
and  enmity  the  feelings  and  the  lan- 
guage of  peaceful  intercourse  and  of 
that  new  relationship  which  the  Presi- 
dent's leadership  is  seeking  to  bring 
about  amongst  all  the  nations. 

But  until  that  "consummation  de- 
voutly to  be  wished"  is  attained,  let  us 
take  care  lest  we  permit  the  hope  of  it 


Poison  Growth  of  Prussianism    93 

to  diminish  our  effort  or  to  weaken  our 
determination.  Neither  hope  nor  any 
other  motive  or  influence  must  be 
suffered  for  one  moment  to  divert  us 
from  the  stern  and  resolute  pursuit,  to 
the  utmost  of  our  capacity,  of  our  high 
and  solemn  purpose  as  it  has  been  pro- 
claimed in  the  great  messages  of 
America's  spokesman  and  leader. 

In  attempting  to  deal  with  the  ques- 
tions that  I  shall  discuss,  I  must  apolo- 
gize for  using  the  personal  pronoun  a 
good  deal  more  than  would  seem  con- 
sonant with  due  modesty.  My  excuse 
is  that  whatever  weight  my  observa- 
tions may  have  with  you,  lies  mainly  in 
the  fact  that  I  am  of  German  birth, 
that  until  the  outbreak  of  the  war  I 
kept  in  close  touch  with  German  men 
and  affairs,  that  I  loved  the  old  Ger- 
many and  that  the  conclusions  which 


94  Right  Above  Race 

I  am  about  to  state  I  have  reached  in 
grief  and  bitter  disappointment. 

For  these  reasons,  also,  what  I  shall 
say  from  personal  knowledge  and  ob- 
servation and  in  a  personal  way  may 
have  some  effect  upon  those  among 
my  fellow  citizens  of  my  own  blood 
whose  eyes  may  not  have  been  opened 
fully  to  the  difference  between  the 
Germany  they  knew  and  the  Germany 
of  1914,  and  who,  owing  to  insufHcient 
and  incorrect  information,  may  not  yet 
have  discerned  with  entire  clearness  the 
path  of  right  and  duty  nor  perceived  the 
true  inwardness  of  the  unprecedented 
tragedy  which  has  befallen  the  world. 

II 

The  world  has  been  hurt  within 
these  past  three  years  as  it  was  never 
hurt  before.     In  the  gloomy  and  accus- 


Poison  Growth  of  Prussianisvi    95 

ing  procession  of  infinite  sorrow  and 
pain  which  was  started  on  that  thrice 
accursed  day  of  July,  1914,  the  hurt  in- 
flicted on  Americans  of  German  descent 
takes  its  tragically  rightful  place. 

The  iron  has  entered  our  souls.  We 
have  been  wantonly  robbed  of  invalu- 
able possessions  which  have  come  down 
to  us  through  the  centuries;  we  have 
been  rendered  ashamed  of  that  in 
which  we  took  pride;  we  have  been 
made  the  enemies  of  those  of  our  own 
blood;  our  very  names  carry  the  sound 
of  a  challenge  to  the  world. 

Surely  we  have  all  too  valid  a  title  to 
rank  amongst  those  most  bitterly  ag- 
grieved by  Prussianism,  and  to  align 
ourselves  in  the  very  forefront  of  those 
who  in  word  and  deed  are  fighting  to 
rid  the  world  forever  of  that  malignant 
growth. 

Heaven  knows,  I  do  not  want,  by 


96  Right  Above  Race 

anything  I  may  be  saying  or  doing,  to 
add  one  ounce  to  the  burden  of  the 
world's  execration  which  rests  already 
with  crushing  weight  upon  the  rulers  of 
Germany  and  their  misguided  people. 
Nor  do  I  seek  forgiveness  for  my  Ger- 
man birth  by  demonstrative  zeal  in  ac- 
tion or  speech. 

I  was  and  am  proud  of  the  great  in- 
heritance which  came  to  me  as  a 
birthright  and  of  the  illustrious  con- 
tributions which  the  German  people 
have  made  to  the  imperishable  assets 
of  the  world.  Until  the  outbreak  of 
the  war  in  1914,  I  maintained  close  and 
active  personal  and  business  relations 
in  Germany.  I  was  well  acquainted 
with  a  number  of  the  leading  person- 
ages of  the  country.  I  served  in  the 
German  army  thirty  years  ago.  I  took 
an  active  interest  in  furthering  German 
art  in  America. 


Poison  Growth  of  Prussianism    97 

I  do  not  apologize  for,  nor  am  I 
ashamed  of,  my  German  birth.  But  I 
am  ashamed — bitterly  and  grievously 
ashamed — of  the  Germany  which 
stands  convicted  before  the  high 
tribunal  of  the  world's  public  opinion 
of  having  planned  and  willed  war;  of 
the  revolting  deeds  committed  in  Bel- 
gium and  northern  France,  of  the  in- 
famy of  the  Lusitania  murders,  of 
innumerable  violations  of  The  Hague 
convention  and  the  law  of  nations,  of 
abominable  and  perfidious  plotting  in 
friendly  countries  and  shameless  abuse 
of  their  hospitality,  of  crime  heaped 
upon  crime  in  hideous  defiance  of  the 
laws  of  God  and  men. 

I  cherish  the  memories  of  my  youth, 
but  these  very  memories  make  me  cry 
out  in  pain  and  wrath  against  those  who 
have  befouled  the  spiritual  soil  of  the 
old  Germany,  in  which  they  were  rooted. 


98  Right  Above  Race 

I  revere  the  high  ideals  and  fine  tra- 
ditions of  that  old  Germany  and  the 
time-honored  conceptions  of  right  con- 
duct which  my  parents  and  the  teachers 
of  my  early  youth  bade  me  treasure 
throughout  life,  but  all  the  more  burn- 
ing is  my  resentment,  all  the  more 
deeply  grounded  my  hostility,  against 
the  Prussian  caste  who  trampled  those 
ideals,  traditions  and  conceptions  in  the 
dust. 

Long  before  the  war,  I  had  come  to 
look  upon  Prussianism  as  amongst  the 
deadliest  poison  growths  that  ever 
sprang  from  the  soil  of  the  spirit  of 
man. 

When  the  war  broke  out  in  Europe, 
when  Belgium  was  invaded,  I  searched 
my  conscience  and  my  judgment  in 
sorrow  and  anguish,  the  powerful  voice 
of  blood  arguing  against  the  still,  small 
voice  of  right. 


Poison  Growth  of  Prussiamsm    99 

And  it  became  clear  to  me  to  the 
point  of  solemn  and  unshakable  con- 
viction that  Prussianism,  in  mad  in- 
fatuation, had  committed  the  crowning 
sin  of  outraging  and  defying  the  con- 
science of  the  world  and  of  challenging 
right  to  mortal  combat  against  might, 
and  that  the  cause  which  the  Allies 
were  defending  was  our  cause,  because 
it  was  the  cause  of  peace,  humanity, 
justice,  and  liberty  (aye,  liberty,  even 
though  Russia,  then  under  autocratic 
rule,  happened  to  be  arrayed  on  that 
side,  and  even  though  diplomats  and 
rulers  made  that  sacred  cause  the  basis 
and  excuse  for  territorial  barter  and 
trade  and  spoils  hunting) . 

In  accordance  with  this  conviction, 
— a  conviction  that  is  unshakable, — 
I  have  acted  and  spoken  ever  since, 
but  I  did  not  feel  that  it  would  be  either 
right  or  fitting  for  me  publicly  to  state 


100  Right  Above  Race 

and  agitate  my  views  so  long  as  our 
country  was  neutral. 

Now,  America,  the  never-defeated, 
has  thrown  her  sword  into  the  scale,  be- 
cause to  do  so  was  indispensable  for  the 
vindication  of  the  basic  and  elementary 
principles  of  right  and  peace  among 
the  nations,  no  less  than  for  our  own 
honor  and  our  own  safety,  the  preserva- 
tion of  our  institutions  and  our  very 
destiny. 

To  co-operate  towards  the  success- 
ful conclusion  of  the  war  is  the  one  and 
supreme  duty  of  every  American,  re- 
gardless of  birth,  of  sympathies  and 
of  political  views.  The  American  of 
German  descent  who,  in  this  time  of 
test  and  trial,  does  not  serve  the  land 
of  his  adoption  with  the  utmost  meas- 
ure of  single-minded  devotion  and  with 
every  ounce  of  his  power,  perjured  him- 


Poison  Growth  of  Prussianism     101 

self  when  he  took  his  oath  of  allegiance 
and  proves  himself  guilty  of  treacher- 
ous duplicity. 

Thank  Heaven!  the  number  of  those 
lukewarm  in  their  patriotism,  or  failing 
in  loyalty,  is  very  small  indeed,  far  too 
small  to  affect  the  record  of  Americans 
of  German  birth  for  good  citizenship 
and  service  to  the  country  in  peace  and 
war. 

There  is  abundant  evidence  that  the 
overwhelming  majority,  indeed  all  but 
an  insignificant  minority,  meant  what 
they  said  when  they  swore  full  and  sole 
allegiance  to  America,  that  they  will 
prove  themselves  wholly  worthy  of  the 
high  privilege  of  citizenship  and  of  the 
generous  trust  of  their  native  fellow 
citizens,  and  that  they  will  not  fail  or 
falter  under  any  test  whatsoever. 

We  will  not  permit  the  blood  in  our 


102  Right  Above  Bace 

veins  to  drown  the  conscience  in  our 
breast.  We  will  heed  the  call  of  honor 
beyond  the  call  of  race. 

We  will  wear  as  a  badge  of  honor 
the  abuse  and  spite  of  those  who  place 
another  cause,  whatever  it  be,  above 
the  Nation's  cause  and  who  see  hypoc- 
risy or  hidden  motives  behind  the  plain 
profession  of  unconditional  loyalty  on 
the  part  of  the  American  of  foreign 
birth,  because  unconditional  American 
loyalty  is  not  in  them. 

Yet,  it  is  not  enough  for  us  Ameri- 
cans of  German  descent  to  do  our  duty 
by  our  country  and  fellow  citizens, 
however  fully  and  unreservedly,  if  we 
do  it  in  resigned  and  oppressed  silence. 
I  believe  we  should  speak  out.  We 
must  give  voice  to  our  unflinching  loy- 
alty and  to  our  deep  conviction  of  the 
justice  of  America's  cause. 

It  is  hard  indeed,  for  us  to  arraign 


Poison  Growth  of  Pmssianism     103 

publicly  the  country  from  which  we 
sprang  and  to  turn  against  our  own 
kith  and  kin,  however  deep  our  detesta- 
tion of  their  wrongdoing  under  the 
spiritual  and  actual  sway  of  the  Prus- 
sian caste  and  however  sincere  our  al- 
legiance to  America.  It  will  be  easily 
understood  by  all  fair-minded  men 
that  right  thinking  persons  will  shrink 
from  so  speaking  and  acting  as  to  lay 
themselves  open  to  the  accusation  of 
being  time-servers  or  popularity  seek- 
ers, and  to  expose  their  motives  to  mis- 
construction. 

These  scruples  are  honorable,  and 
they  are  felt  by  many  whose  patriotic 
loyalty  and  devotion  are  beyond  all 
question.  But,  to  my  thinking,  they 
are  stamped  out  by  the  iron  tread  of 
the  times. 

I  believe  that  we  should  speak  out, 
we  Americans  of  German  birth,  because 


104  Right  Above  Race 

we  have  been  misrepresented  to  our 
fellow  citizens  and  to  the  world  by  a 
small  minority  of  professional  spokes- 
men and  pernicious  agitators,  by  no 
means  all  of  German  birth. 

We  must  protect  the  German  name, 
as  far  as  it  is  in  our  keeping,  in  Amer- 
ica, if,  alas,  we  cannot  protect  it  else- 
where. 

It  has  always,  and  rightly,  been  an 
honored  name  here,  and  those  who 
bore  it  have  ever  done  their  full  share 
for  the  common  weal,  in  the  works  of 
peace  no  less  than  in  every  crisis  of  the 
Nation's  history.  Let  us  do  what  in  us 
lies  to  preserve  the  names  we  bear  in 
honor  and  good  standing  amongst  our 
fellow  citizens. 

I  believe  that  we  should  speak  out, 
because  our  voices  may  reach  the  ear 
and  the  conscience  of  the  German  peo- 
ple when  no  other  voices  can,  and  be- 


Poison  Growth  of  Prussianism    105 

cause  they  will  reach  the  ear  of  its 
rulers.  These,  I  know,  counted  upon 
the  moral,  if  not  the  actual,  support  of 
the  German-born  in  America  to  the 
extent,  at  least,  of  preventing  our  join- 
ing the  war,  and  now,  when  we  have 
joined,  they  count  upon  that  support 
to  agitate  for  an  inconclusive  and  un- 
righteous peace. 

I  believe  that  we  should  speak  out  to 
convince  our  native-born  fellow  citizens 
that  our  fundamental  conceptions  of 
right  and  wrong  are  like  theirs,  that 
the  taint  is  not  in  the  German  blood, 
hut  in  the  system  of  rulership,  that  we 
are  with  them  and  of  them  wholeheart- 
edly, single-mindedly  and  unreservedly ; 
because  if  we  failed  in  conveying  to 
them  that  conviction  in  the  hour  of  our 
common  country's  stress  and  trial,  there 
would  ensue  the  calamity  of  a  spiritual, 
if  not  an  actual,  breach  between  them 


106  Right  Above  Race 

and  us  which  it  would  take  a  genera- 
tion to  heal. 

Ill 

There  are  some  of  you,  probably, 
who  will  still  find  it  hard  to  believe  that 
the  Germany  you  knew  can  be  guilty  of 
the  crimes  which  have  made  it  an  out- 
law amongst  the  nations.  But  do  you 
know  modern  Germany?  Unless  you 
have  been  there  within  the  last  twenty- 
five  years,  not  once  or  twice,  but  at 
regular  intervals;  unless  you  have 
looked  below  the  glittering  surface  of 
the  marvelous  material  progress  and 
achievement  and  seen  how  the  soul  of 
Germany  was  being  eaten  away  by  the 
virulent  poison  of  Prussianism;  unless 
you  have  watched  and  followed  the 
appalling  transformation  of  German 
mentality  and  morality  under  the  ne- 


Poison  Growth  of  Prussianism     107 

farious  and  puissant  influence  of  the 
priesthood  of  power-worship,  you  do 
not  know  the  Germany  of  this  day  and 
generation. 

It  is  not  the  Germany  of  old,  the 
land  of  our  affectionate  remembrance. 
It  is  not  the  Germany  which  men  now 
of  middle  age  or  over  knew  in  their 
youth.  It  is  not  the  Germany  of  the 
first  Emperor  William,  a  modest  and 
God-fearing  gentleman.  It  is  not  the 
Germany,  even,  of  Bismarck,  man  of 
blood  and  iron  though  he  was,  who  had 
builded  a  structure  which,  whilst  not 
founded  on  liberty,  yet  was  capable 
and  gave  promise  of  going  down  into 
history  as  one  of  the  greatest  examples 
of  enlightened  and  even  beneficent 
autocracy;  who,  in  the  contemplative 
and  mellowed  wisdom  of  his  old  age, 
often  warned  the  nation  against  the 
very  spirit  which,  alas,  came  to  have 


108  Right  Above  Race 

sway  over  it,  and  against  the  very  war 
which  that  spirit  unchained. 

The  Germany  which  brought  upon 
the  world  the  immeasurable  disaster 
of  this  war,  and  at  whose  monstrous 
deeds  and  doctrines  the  civUized  na- 
tions of  the  earth  stand  aghast,  started 
into  definite  being  less  than  thirty 
years  ago.  I  can  almost  lay  my  finger 
upon  the  date  and  circumstances  of  its 
ill-omened  advent. 

Less  than  thirty  years  ago,  a  *'new 
course"  was  flamboyantly  proclaimed 
by  those  in  authority,  and  the  term 
"new  course"  became  the  order  of  the 
day.  With  it  and  from  it  there  came  a 
truly  marvelous  quickening  of  the 
energies  and  creative  abilities  of  the 
nation,  a  period  of  material  achieve- 
ment and  of  social  progress,  in  short,  a 
national  forward  movement  almost 
unequalled     in     history.     The     world 


Poison  Growth  of  Prussianism     109 

looked  on  in  admiration,  perhaps  not 
entirely  free  from  a  tinge  of  envy. 
Germany  was  conquering  the  earth  by 
peaceful  penetration;  aiid  no  one  stood 
in  its  waif.  It  had  free  access  to  all 
the  seas  and  all  the  lands. 

But  with  that  "new  course"  and 
from  it  there  also  came  a  new  god,  a 
false  and  evil  god.  He  exacted  as  sac- 
rifices for  his  altars  the  time-honored 
ideals  of  the  fathers,  and  other  high  and 
noble  things.  And  his  commands  were 
obeyed. 

There  came  upon  the  German  people 
a  whole  train  of  new  and  baneful  in- 
fluences and  impulses,  formidably  stim- 
ulating as  a  powerful  drug.  There 
came,  amongst  other  evils,  materialism 
and  covetousness  and  in^eligion;  over- 
weening arrogance,  an  impatient  con- 
tempt for  the  rights  of  the  weak,  a 
mania    for    world    dominion,    and    a 


110  Right  Above  Race 

veritable  lunacy  of  power  worship. 
There  came  also  a  fixed  and  irrational 
distrust  of  the  intentions  of  other  na- 
tions, for  the  evil  which  had  crept  into 
their  own  souls  made  them  see  evil  in 
others,  and  that  distrust  was  nurtured 
carefully  and  deliberately  by  those  in 
authority. 

And,  finally,  there  came  "the  day" 
in  which  the  "new  course,"  fatally  and 
inevitably,  was  bound  to  culminate. 
There  came  the  old  temptation,  as  old 
as  humanity  itself.  The  Tempter  took 
the  Prussian  and  Prussianized  rulers 
up  a  high  mountain  and  showed  them 
all  the  riches  and  power  of  the  world. 
Showed  them  the  great  countries  and 
capitals  of  the  earth  teeming  with  peace- 
ful labor — Brussels,  Paris,  London, 
aye,  and  New  York,  and  told  them: 
"Look  at  these.  Use  your  power  ruth- 
lessly and  they  are  yours."     And  those 


Poison  Growth  of  Prussiamsm     111 

rulers  did  not  say:  "Get  thee  behind 
me,  Satan;"  but  they  said:  *'Lead  on, 
Satan,  and  we  shall  follow  thee."  And 
follow  him  they  did,  and  brought  upon 
the  green  earth  the  red  ruin  of  hell. 

And  with  rejoicing  they  greeted  *'the 
day."  It  was  to  bring  them,  as  one 
German  in  an  important  position  here 
expressed  it  to  me,  in  August,  1914,  "a 
merry  war  and  victory  before  the  year 
is  out." 

IV 

Truly,  history  affords  no  parallel  to 
the  spiritual  poisoning  and  the  result- 
ing horrible  transmutation  of  a  whole 
people,  such  as  Prussianism  wrought 
in  the  incredibly  short  period  of  one 
generation.  Nor  would  I  believe  that 
such  a  dreadful  phenomenon  could  pos- 
sibly take  place  were  it  not   for  the 


112  Right  Above  Race 

evidence  of  my  own  eyes  and  my  own 
ears. 

My  observations  led  me  to  think, 
however,  that  Prussianism  had  reached 
the  crest  of  its  influence  some  years 
before  the  war  and  that  liberal  tenden- 
cies were  beginning  to  make  headway 
against  it. 

There  were  many  men  in  Germany 
before  the  war  who  were  opposed  to  and 
saw  the  dangers  arising  from  militarist 
ambition  and  jingo  teaching  and  raised 
their  voices  against  them  in  warning. 
There  was  the  ever-increasing  Socialist 
vote  which — although  Socialism  in  the 
German  Empire  does  not  mean  what  it 
means  in  Russia  and  amongst  the 
extremists  in  our  country — did  mean 
opposition  to  Junker  methods  and  re- 
actionary tendencies. 

I  am  by  no  means  sure  that  the  very 
growth  and  spread  of  that  liberal  spirit 


Poison  Growth  of  Priissianism     113 

did  not  have  some  influence  in  causing 
the  militarist  clique  to  precipitate  the 
war,  as  throughout  history  autocracy 
has  resorted  frequently  to  the  unity- 
compelling  force  of  war  in  order  to 
arrest,  divert  and  thwart  liberalism  and 
independence. 

To  deceive  the  German  people,  and 
steel  them  to  patriotic  determination 
and  sacrifice,  the  Prussian  rulers  and 
their  spokesmen  affirmed  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war,  and  have  kept  re- 
affirming ever  since  with  nauseating 
reiteration  and  disgusting  hypocrisy, 
that  theirs  was  a  defensive  war,  forced 
upon  them  by  wicked  and  envious  neigh- 
bors.    A  defensive  war,  indeed! 

Let  me  review  very  rapidly  the  cir- 
cumstances which  surrounded  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war.  Austria,  after  the 
friction  of  long  standing  between  the 
two  countries,  which  had  reached  its 


114  Right  Above  Race 

culminating  point  in  the  murder  of 
the  Austrian  heir-apparent,  sent  an  ul- 
timatum to  Sei'bia.  The  conditions  of 
that  ultimatum,  although  unexampled 
in  their  severity  and  sweeping  demands, 
were  accepted  by  Serbia  almost  in  their 
entirety. 

Austria  insisted  on  acceptance  to  the 
very  letter,  unconditional  and  absolute, 
within  twenty-four  hours  or  war,  where- 
upon Russia  declared  that,  if  war  was 
thus  forced  upon  little  Serbia,  she  would 
stand  by  her.  After  much  backing  and 
filling,  at  the  last  minute,  Austria 
shrank  from  the  calamity  of  a  world 
conflagration  and  declared  herself  ready 
to  enter  into  friendly  negotiations  with 
Russia.  The  frightful  danger  which 
threatened  the  world  seemed  to  be  on 
the  way  of  being  removed. 

But  the  Prussian  militarist  party, 
seeing  in  their  grasp  the  opportunity 


Poison  Growth  of  Prussianism    115 

for  which  they  had  planned  and  plotted 
these  thirty  years,  were  not  willing  to 
let  it  go  by,  and  they  did  not  shrink 
from  the  catastrophe  which  was  in- 
volved. 

Heretofore  Austria  had  held  the  cen- 
tre of  the  stage  and  Germany  had  pro- 
fessed herself  unable  to  interfere.  But 
when  Austria  was  on  the  point  of  re- 
ceding, Germany  did  interfere,  and,  on 
the  plea  of  the  menace  of  the  Russian 
mobilization  (a  mobilization  which  there 
is  reason  to  suspect  was  deliberately 
provoked  through  machinations  from 
Berlin),  started  the  war  by  an  ultima- 
tum to  Russia,  which  was  tantamount 
to  declaring  war,  on  the  very  day  on 
which  Austria  yielded.  Let  it  be  re- 
membered that  whatever  menace  the 
Russian  mobilization  may  have  con- 
tained was  infinitely  greater  against 
Austria   than   against   Germany,    and 


116  Right  Above  Race 

yet  Austria,  on  the  last  day  in  July, 
1914,  declared  herself  ready  to  nego- 
tiate. 

I  know  something  from  actual  and 
personal  experience  of  the  plotting  of 
the  Prussian  war  party,  and  how  for  a 
full  generation  they  had  endeavored 
again  and  again  to  bring  about  a  situa- 
tion which  would  force  war  upon  the 
world.  I  know  of  my  personal  knowl- 
edge that  the  stage  was  set  for  it  six 
or  seven  years  ago  in  connection  with 
the  Agadir  episode. 

I  know  that  the  Pan-Germans  meant 
to  have  a  footing  in  South  America, 
and,  once  there,  would  have  threatened 
and  had  prepared  to  threaten,  this  very 
country  of  ours. 

I  know  that  Austria,  in  1913,  meant 
to  conquer  Serbia,  and  so  informed  her 
then  ally,  Italy,  believing  that  she  could 
do  so  with  impunity. 


Poison  Growth  of  Prussianism     117 

And  I  know  that  Austria  did  not  be- 
lieve that  her  ultimatum  to  Serbia  in 
July,  1914,  would  bring  on  a  serious 
war. 

I  know  it,  because  the  week  following 
the  outbreak  of  the  war  I  saw  a  letter 
just  arrived  from  a  gentleman  in  high 
position  in  Austria,  connected  with 
the  Austrian  Foreign  Office,  in  which, 
writing  to  New  York  under  date  of 
about  July  20,  1914,  he  said: 

"We  are  now  passing  through  a  nerve-wear- 
ing time  because  of  our  difficulty  with  Serbia, 
but  by  the  time  this  letter  reaches  you  every- 
thing will  be  all  right  again.  The  Serbians 
have  been  intriguing  against  us  these  many 
years,  and  this  time  they  must  be  settled  with 
for  good  and  all.  V^e  shall  go  in  and  take 
Belgrade,  but  inasmuch  as  we  have  given  as- 
surance to  Russia  that  we  shall  not  perma- 
nently interfere  with  the  integrity  and  inde- 
pendence of  Serbia,  and  inasmuch  as  neither 
Russia  nor  her  allies  are  ready  to  fight,  the 
whole  thing  will  be  a  military  promenade  and 
will  have  no  serious  consequences.'* 


118  Right  Above  Race 

A  defensive  war !  Was  it  a  defensive 
war  which  Prussianism  was  thinking  of 
when  it  declined  England's  repeated 
offer  for  a  reduction  by  both  countries 
of  the  building  of  warships ;  when  it  re- 
fused at  the  last  Hague  conference  to 
discuss  the  limitation  of  standing  armies 
and  armaments ;  when  Germany — alone 
amongst  the  great  nations — rejected 
our  offer  of  a  treaty  of  arbitration? 

Years  before  the  war,  Nietzsche, 
than  whom  no  man  had  greater  influ- 
ence in  shaping  the  trend  of  German 
thought  in  the  past  thirty  years, 
wrote: 

"You  shall  love  peace  as  a  means  to  prepare 
for  new  wars.  You  say  that  a  good  cause  may 
hallow  even  war,  but  I  say  to  you  that  it  is  a 
good  war  which  hallows  every  cause/* 

On  July  29,  1914,  the  well  informed 
German  newspaper,  Vorwaerts,  de- 
clared : 


Poison  Growth  of  Prussianism     119 

"The  camarilla  of  war-lords  is  working  with 
absolutely  unscrupulous  means  to  carry  out 
their  fearful  designs  to  precipitate  a  world 
war." 

In  October,  1914,  three  months  after 
the  outbreak  of  the  war,  Maximihan 
Harden,  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  in- 
fluential of  German  publicists,  wrote: 

"Let  us  renounce  those  miserable  efforts  to 
excuse  the  actions  of  Germany  in  declaring  war. 
It  is  not  against  our  will  that  we  have  thrown 
ourselves  into  this  gigantic  adventure.  The  war 
has  not  been  imposed  upon  us  by  others  and 
by  surprise.  We  have  willed  the  war.  It  was 
our  duty  to  will  it.  We  decline  to  appear  be- 
fore the  tribunal  of  united  Europe.  We  reject 
its  jurisdiction.  One  principle  alone  counts  and 
no  other — one  principle  which  contains  and  sums 
up  all  the  others — might." 

I  could  go  on  for  hours  quoting  sim- 
ilar views  and  sentiments  from  the 
utterances  of  leading  German  writers 
and  educators  before  and  since  the 
war.     It  is  worth  mentioning,  though, 


120  Right  Above  Race 

that  Maximilian  Harden  has  seen  a  new 
light,  and  for  some  time  has  been  cour- 
ageously speaking  and  writing  in  a  very 
different  strain.  There  are  a  number 
of  influential  men  in  Germany  who, 
like  him,  have  undergone  a  change  of 
mind  and  heart.  Strong  and  out- 
spoken assertions  of  liberal  sentiment 
and  independent  aspirations  have  found 
utterance  in  that  country  in  the  course 
of  the  last  six  months,  such  as  have  not 
been  heard  within  its  frontiers  these 
many  years. 

A  defensive  war!  There  are  certain 
telegrams  (generally  unknown  in  Ger- 
many, even  to  this  day)  from  Sir  Ed- 
ward Grey,  the  British  Minister  for 
Foreign  Affairs,  to  the  British  Ambas- 
sador in  Germany,  sent  during  the  week 
preceding  the  outbreak  of  the  war  in 
Europe,  which  by  themselves  are  eon- 


Poison  Growth  of  Prussianism     121 

elusive  testimony  to  the  contrary.  In 
these  messages,  the  British  Foreign 
Minister  went  ahnost  on  his  knees  to 
beg  Germany  to  consent  to  a  confer- 
ence in  order  to  avoid  war. 

He  went  to  the  utmost  limits  in 
promising  benevolent  consideration  for 
Germany's  viewpoint  and  wishes,  then 
and  in  the  future,  and  he  stated  that  if 
Germany  would  put  forward  any  rea- 
sonable proposition  honestly  calculated 
to  maintain  peace,  England  would  sup- 
port it  with  all  of  its  influence,  and  if 
France  and  Russia  would  not  fall  in  line 
England  would  promptly  separate  it- 
self from  these  two  countries. 

These  overtures  and  pleas  met  with 
no  response  from  the  Masters  of  Ger- 
many.    They  declared  war. 

It  is  probably  true  that  the  Russian 
Pan-Slavists  had  planned  war  sooner 


122  Right  Above  Race 

or  later,  just  as  the  Pan-Germans  did. 
War  might  perhaps  have  come  then  or 
at  some  other  time,  even  if  the  Prus- 
sian rulers  had  not  precipitated  it. 
But  the  fact  remains  that  it  was  the 
Imperial  German  Government  which 
did  declare  war.  For  having  antici- 
pated that  ''perhaps,"  and  resolved  it 
according  to  their  own  plans  and  wishes, 
for  that,  their  initial  crime,  and  for 
those  which  followed,  the  rulers  of  the 
German  people  will  have  to  answer  be- 
fore the  judgment  seat  of  God  and  his- 
tory. Upon  them  rests  the  blood-guilt 
for  this  dreadful  catastrophe  which  has 
befallen  the  world. 


A  few  days  ago  I  read  a  poem  ad- 
dressed to  Germany,  of  which  these 
lines  have  remained  in  my  memory: 


Poison  Growth  of  Prussiamsm     123 

"Oh,  land  of  now,  oh,  land  of  then, 
Dear  God,  the  dreams,  the  dreams  of  men! 
Enslaved,  immersed  in  greed  and  hate. 
Where  are  the  things  which  made  you  great?" 

The  things  which  made  Germany 
great  are  not  dead,  and  the  world  can- 
not afford  to  allow  them  to  die.  They 
belong  to  the  immortal  possessions  of 
the  human  race. 

They  have  passed,  for  the  time  being, 
alas,  out  of  the  keeping  of  the  mass  of 
the  German  people,  whose  glorious  in- 
heritance they  were. 

They  are  now  in  the  keeping  of  that 
minority,  not  perhaps,  very  great  as 
yet,  but  growing  steadilj',  of  men  in 
Germany  itself  from  whose  eyes  the 
scales  have  begun  to  fall.  They  are  in 
the  keeping  of  all  the  nations  who  ap- 
preciate and  cherish  and  are  deter- 
mined to  maintain  those  great  and  high 
things   which   the   civilized   world   has 


124  Right  Above  Race 

attained  through  the  toil,  sacrifice  and 
suffering  of  its  best  in  the  course  of 
many  centuries.  And,  above  all,  they 
are  in  the  keeping  of  the  ten  or  fifteen 
millions  of  Americans  of  German  de- 
scent. 

As  that  great  American  of  German 
birth,  Carl  Schurz,  and  many  other 
brave  and  high-minded  Germans — my 
own  father,  I  am  proud  to  say,  among 
them — in  1848  stood  in  arms  against 
Prussian  oppression,  for  liberal  ideas 
and  right  and  truth  and  freedom,  so  do 
we  stand  now.  In  fighting  for  the 
cause  of  America  as  loyal  Americans, 
we  are  fighting  at  the  same  time  for  the 
deliverance  of  the  country  of  our  birth 
from  those  unrighteous  powers  which 
hold  it  enthralled  and  feed  upon  its  soul. 

If  ever  a  nation  entered  a  war  after 
having  maintained  infinite  forbearance 
in  the  face  of  grave  menace  and  dan- 


Poison  Growth  of  Prussianism     125 

gers  and  the  most  intolerable  affronts, 
and  from  motives  as  pure  and  high  as 
the  great  blue  dome  of  heaven,  Amer- 
ica is  that  nation. 

We  seek  no  reward  whatsoever  of  a 
material  nature.  We  seek  no  "place  in 
the  sun" — to  use  the  German  Chancel- 
lor's term — except  the  sun  of  liberty, 
and  that  we  do  not  seek  selfishly,  but  to 
share  with  all  the  world. 

America  is  not  waging  a  war  of 
vengeance,  notwithstanding  all  the  in- 
juries and  measureless  provocations 
that  we  have  received.  We  have 
lighted  a  fire  to  purify,  not  to  burn 
at  the  stake. 

America  is  incapable  of  hating  an 
entire  people,  but  we  do  hate,  we  are 
fighting  and  we  shall  fight  with  every 
ounce  of  our  might,  the  spirit  which 
has  power  over  the  people  of  Germany, 
and  which,  if  it  were  to  prevail — as,  un- 


126  Right  Above  Race 

der  God,  it  never  will — would  destroy 
liberty,  justice  and  plighted  faith.  It 
was  not  the  people  of  Great  Britain 
which  America  fought  in  the  War  of 
the  Revolution,  but  the  spirit  and  the 
ruling  caste  which  then  held  sway  over 
them.  America  fought  then  for  an 
ideal  and  for  liberty  and  independence, 
and  sacrificed  blood  and  treasure  and 
suffered  and  endured  and  won.  And 
so  it  will  be  now. 

The  spirit  of  Prussianism  and  the 
spirit  of  Americanism  cannot  live  in 
the  same  world.  One  or  the  other  must 
conquer. 

In  the  mad  pride  of  its  contempt  for 
democracy,  Prussianism  has  thrown 
down  the  gauntlet  to  us.  We  have 
taken  up  the  challenge  and  now  stand 
arrayed  by  the  side  of  the  other  free- 
dom-loving nations  of  the  world,  giving 
our  fresh  strength  and  our  boundless 


Poison  Growth  of  Prussianism     127 

resources  to  them  who,  heroically  striv- 
ing, have  borne  the  heat  and  burden  of 
a  dreadfully  long  and  exhausting  strug- 
gle, yet  stand  unwearied,  erect  and 
resolute. 

The  enemy  is  of  formidable  strength. 
But  even  if  he  were  far  stronger  than  he 
is,  even  if  we  did  not  have  the  men  and 
the  means  which  are  ours,  even  if  our 
comrades-in-arms  had  not  demonstrated 
their  superb  and  indomitable  prowess, 
still  must  our  cause  prevail — for  there 
is  fighting  with  us  a  force  which  has 
ever  proved  itself  stronger  than  any 
other  power  on  earth,  and  again  and 
again  has  triumphed  over  overwhelm- 
ing odds.  That  force,  God-inspired, 
death-defying  and  unconquerable,  is  the 
soul  of  man. 

And  when — Heaven  grant  it  may  be 
soon! — the  soul  of  the  German  people 
will  have  freed  itself  from  the  sinister 


128  Eight  Above  Race 

bondage,  when  it  will  have  found  again 
powers  that  now  keep  it  in  ban  and 
the  high  impulses  and  aims  of  its  former 
self,  when  it  will  once  more  understand 
and  speak  the  universal  language  of  hu- 
manity and  right,  then,  in  God's  own 
time  there  will  be  peace. 


FRENZIED 
LIBERTY 

THE   MYTH    OF 


"a  eich  man's  war" 


Extracts  from  Address  given  at  the  University 
of  Wisconsin,  January  14,  1918 


I 

FRENZIED  LIBERTY 


WE  are  engaged  in  a  war,  an  "ir- 
repressible conflict,"  a  most 
just  and  righteous  war  for  a  cause  as 
high  and  noble  as  ever  inspired  a  peo- 
ple to  put  forth  its  utmost  of  sacrifice 
and  valor.  To  attain  the  end  for  which 
this  peace-loving  nation  unsheathed  its 
sword,  to  lay  low  and  make  powerless 
the  accursed  spirit  which  brought  all 
this  unspeakable  misery,  sorrow  and 
ruin  upon  the  world,  is  our  one  and 
supreme  and  unshakeable  purpose. 

That  is  the  purpose  of  the  people  of 
Wisconsin  as  it  is  the  purpose  of  the 

131 


132  Right  Above  Race 

people  of  New  York  and  of  every  other 
State  in  the  Union.  I  give  no  credence 
to  and  have  no  patience  with  those  who 
would  measure  as  with  a  thermometer 
the  loyalty  temperature  of  our  com- 
munities. 

Some  dreamers  there  may  be,  here  as 
everywhere,  so  immersed  in  their  dreams 
that  the  trumpet  call  of  the  day  has  not 
yet  awakened  them. 

Some  politicians  there  may  be,  here 
and  elsewhere,  so  obsessed  by  the  issues 
which  heretofore  were  good  election  as- 
sets and  so  unable  to  shake  off  the  in- 
veterate habits  and  the  formulas  and 
calculations  of  a  lifetime,  that  they  are 
unable  to  recognize  and  to  share  in  the 
sudden  flaming  manifestations  spring- 
ing from  the  deep  of  the  people's  soul 
— and  after  a  while,  looking  around  for 
their  usual  followers,  find  themselves  in 
chilly  loneliness. 


Frenzied  Liberty  133 

Some  there  are,  a  small  minority  al- 
ways and  getting  smaller  every  day, 
among  Americans  of  German  birth  or 
descent  who  lack  the  vision  to  see  their 
duty  or  the  strength  to  follow  it,  and 
who  stand  irresolute,  hesitant  and 
dazed. 

The  vast  and  overwhelming  majority 
have  acted  like  true  men  and  loyal 
Americans.  They  are  entitled  to  claim 
your  sympathetic  understanding  for 
the  heartache  which  is  theirs  and  they 
are  entitled  to  claim  your  trust.  It 
will  not  be  misplaced. 

I  am  taking  very  little  account  of  that 
insignificant  number  of  men  of  German 
origin  who,  misguided  or  corrupt,  dare 
by  insidious  and  underground  processes 
to  attempt  to  weaken  or  oppose  the 
resolute  will  of  the  Nation.  There  are 
too  few  of  them  to  count  and  their 
manoeuvres  are  too  clumsy  to  be  ef- 


134  Right  Above  Race 

fective.  But  let  them  be  warned. 
There  is  sweeping  through  the  country 
a  mighty  wave  of  stern  and  grim  deter- 
mination, which  bodes  ill  for  anyone 
standing  in  its  way. 

II 

One  element  only  their  is  in  our  pop- 
ulation which  does  deliberately  chal- 
lenge our  national  unity.  I  mean  the 
militant  Bolsheviki  in  our  midst,  the 
preachers  and  devotees  of  liberty  run 
amuck,  who  would  place  a  visionary 
class  interest  above  patriotism  and  who 
in  ignorant  fanaticism  would  substi- 
tute for  the  tyranny  of  autocracy  the 
still  more  intolerable  tyranny  of  mob- 
rule,  as  for  the  time  being  they  have 
done  in  Russia. 

If  it  were  not  for  the  disablement  of 
Russia,   the   battle   against   autocracy 


Frenzied  Liberty  135 

would  have  been  won  by  now.  As  so 
often  before,  liberty  has  been  wounded 
in  the  house  of  its  friends.  Liberty  in 
the  wild  and  freakish  hands  of  fanatics 
has  once  more,  as  frequently  in  the  past, 
proved  the  effective  helpmate  of  autoc- 
racy and  the  twin  brother  of  tyranny. 

Out-czaring  the  czar,  its  votaries  are 
filling  the  prisons  with  their  political  op- 
ponents, are  practising  ruthless  spolia- 
tion and  savage  oppression,  and  are 
maintaining  their  self-constituted  rule 
by  the  force  of  bayonets.  Riot,  rob- 
bery, famine,  fratricidal  strife  are  stalk- 
ing through  the  land. 

The  deadliest  foe  of  democracy  is  not 
autocracy  but  liberty  frenzied. 

Liberty  is  not  fool-proof.  For  its 
beneficent  working  it  demands  self- 
restraint,  a  sane  and  clear  recognition 
of  the  practical  and  attainable  and  of 
the  fact  that  there  are  laws  of  nature 


136  Right  Above  Race 

which  are  beyond  our  power  to  change. 

Liberty  can,  does  and  must  limit  the 
rights  of  the  strong,  it  must  increas- 
ingly guard  and  promote  the  well-being 
of  those  endowed  with  lesser  gifts  for 
the  struggle  for  existence  and  success, 
it  must  strive  in  every  way  consistent 
with  sane  recognition  of  the  realities  to 
make  life  more  worth  living  to  those 
whose  existence  is  cast  in  the  mould  of 
the  vast  average  of  mankind;  it  must 
give  political  equality,  equality  before 
the  law;  it  must  throw  wide  open  to 
talent  and  worth  the  door  of  oppor- 
tunity. 

But  it  must  not  attempt  in  fatuous 
recklessness  to  make  over  humanity  on 
the  pattern  of  absolute  equality.  If 
and  when  it  does  so  attempt,  it  will  fail 
as  that  attempt  has  always  failed 
throughout  history.  For  an  inscrut- 
able Providence  has  made  inequality  of 


Frenzied  Liberty  137 

endowment  a  fundamental  law  of  na- 
ture, animate  as  well  as  inanimate,  and 
from  inequality  of  physical  strength,  of 
brain  power  and  of  character,  springs 
inevitably  the  fact  of  inequality  of  re- 
sults. 

Envy,  demagogism,  utopianism,  well- 
meaning  uplift  agitation  may  throw 
themselves  against  that  basic  law  of  all 
being,  but  the  clash  will  create  merely 
temporary  confusion,  destruction  and 
anarchy,  as  in  Russia ;  and  after  a  little 
while  and  much  suffering,  the  suprem- 
acy of  sanely  restrained  individualism 
over  frenzied  collectivism  will  reassert 
itself. 

Ill 

Under  the  system  of  wisely  ordered 
liberty,  combined  with  incentive  to  in- 
dividual effort  whereof  the  foundation 
was  laid  by  the  far-sighted  and  enlight- 


138  Right  Above  Race 

ened  men  who  created  this  nation  and 
endowed  it  with  the  most  sagacious  in- 
strument of  government  that  the  wit  of 
man  has  devised,  America  has  grown 
and  prospered  beyond  all  other  nations. 
It  has  stood  as  a  republic  for  nearly 
a  century  and  a  half,  which  is  far  longer 
than  any  other  genuine  republic  has  en- 
dured amongst  the  great  nations  of  the 
world  since  the  beginning  of  the  Chris- 
tian era.  Its  past  has  been  glorious, 
the  vista  of  its  future  is  one  of  bound- 
less opportunity,  of  splendid  fruitful- 
ness  for  its  own  people  and  the  world, 
if  it  remains  but  true  to  its  principles 
and  traditions,  adjusting  their  expres- 
sion and  application  to  the  changing 
needs  of  the  times  in  a  spirit  of  progress, 
sympathetic  understanding  and  enlight- 
ened justice,  but  rejecting  the  teach- 
ings and  temptations  of  false,  though 
plausible  prophets. 


Frenzied  Liberty  139 

More  and  more,  of  late,  do  we  see  the 
very  foundations  of  that  majestic  and 
beneficent  structure  clamorously  as- 
sailed by  some  of  those  to  whom  the 
great  republic  generously  gave  asylum 
and  to  whom  she  opened  wide  the  por- 
tals of  her  freedom  and  her  opportuni- 
ties. 

These  people  with  many  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  their  countrymen  came  to 
our  free  shores  after  centuries  of  op- 
pression and  persecution.  America 
gave  them  everything  she  had  to  give — 
the  great  gift  of  the  rights  and  liberties 
of  citizenship,  free  education  in  our 
schools  and  universities,  free  treatment 
in  our  clinics  and  hospitals,  our  bound- 
less opportunities  for  social  and  mate- 
rial advancement. 

Most  of  them  have  proved  them- 
selves useful  and  valuable  elements  in 
our  many-rooted  population.     Some  of 


140  Right  Above  Race 

them  have  accomplished  eminent 
achievements  in  science,  industry  and 
the  arts.  Certain  of  the  quahties  and 
talents  which  they  contribute  to  the 
common  stock  are  of  great  worth  and 
promise. 

But  some  of  them  there  are  who  have 
shown  themselves  unworthy  of  the  trust 
of  their  fellow-citizens;  ingrates,  dis- 
turbers, ignorant  of  or  disloyal  to  the 
spirit  of  America,  abusers  of  her  hos- 
pitality. 

Some  there  are  who  have  been  blinded 
by  the  glare  of  liberty  as  a  man  is 
blinded  who  after  long  confinement  in 
darkness,  comes  suddenly  into  the 
strong  sunlight.  Blinded,  they  dare  to 
aspire  to  force  their  guidance  upon 
Americans  who  for  generations  have 
walked  in  the  light  of  liberty. 

They  have  become  drunk  with  the 
strong  wine  of  freedom,  these  men  who 


Frenzied  Liberty  141 

until  they  landed  on  Americas  coasts 
had  tasted  nothing  but  the  bitter  waters 
of  tyranny.  Drunk,  they  presume  to 
impose  their  reeling  gait  upon  Ameri- 
cans to  whom  freedom  has  been  a  pure 
and  refreshing  fountain  for  a  century 
and  a  half. 

Brooding  in  the  gloom  of  age-long 
oppression,  they  have  evolved  a  fantas- 
tic and  distorted  image  of  free  govern- 
ment. In  fatuous  effrontery  they  seek 
to  graft  the  growth  of  their  stumted 
vision  upon  the  splendid  and  ancient 
tree  of  American  institutions. 


IV 


We  will  not  have  it  so,  we  who  are 
Americans  by  birth  or  adoption.  We 
reject  these  impudent  pretensions. 
Changes  the  American  people  will 
make  as  their  need  becomes  apparent, 


142  Right  Above  Race 

improvements  they  welcome,  the  great- 
est attainable  well-being  for  all  those 
under  our  national  roof-tree  is  their 
aim;  but  they  will  do  all  that  in  the 
American  way  of  sane  and  orderly 
progress — and  in  none  other. 

Against  foes  within  no  less  than 
against  enemies  without  they  will  know 
how  to  preserve  and  protect  the  splen- 
did structure  of  light  and  order  which 
is  the  great  and  treasured  inheritance 
of  all  those  who  rightly  bear  the  name 
Americans,  of  which  the  stewardship  is 
entrusted  to  them  and  which,  God  will- 
ing, they  will  hand  on  to  their  children 
sound  and  wholesome,  unshaken  and 
undefiled. 

The  time  is  ripe  and  over-ripe  to  call 
a  halt  upon  these  spreaders  of  outland- 
ish and  pernicious  doctrines.  The 
American  is  indulgent  to  a  fault  and 
slow  to  wrath.     But  he  is  now  passing 


Frenzied  Liberty  143 

through  a  time  of  tension  and  strain. 
His  teeth  are  set  and  his  nerves  on  edge. 
He  sees  more  closely  approaching 
every  day  the  dark  valley  through 
which  his  sons  and  brothers  must  pass 
and  from  which  too  many,  alas,  will  not 
return.  It  is  an  evil  time  to  cross  him. 
He  is  not  in  the  temper  to  be  trifled 
with.  He  is  apt  very  suddenly  to  bring 
down  the  indignant  fist  of  his  might 
upon  those  who  would  presume  on  his 
habitual  mood  of  easy-going  good  na- 
ture. 

When  I  speak  of  the  militant  Bol- 
sheviki  in  our  midst  as  foes  of  national 
unity  I  mean  to  include  those  of  Amer- 
ican stock  who  are  their  allies,  comrades 
or  followers — those  who  put  a  narrow 
class  interest  and  a  sloppy  internation- 
alism above  patriotism,  with  whom  class 
hatred  and  envy  have  become  a  con- 
suming passion,  whom  visionary  obses- 


144  Bight  Above  Race 

sions  and  a  false  conception  of  equality 
have  inflamed  to  the  point  of  irrespon- 
sibility. But  I  am  far  from  meaning 
to  reflect  upon  those  who,  while  deter- 
mined Socialists,  are  patriotic  Ameri- 
cans. 

I  believe  the  Socialistic  state  to  be  an 
impracticable  conception,  a  Utopian 
dream,  human  nature  being  what  it  is, 
and  the  immutable  laws  of  nature  being 
what  they  are.  But  there  is  not  a  little 
in  Socialistic  doctrine  and  aspirations 
that  is  high  and  noble ;  there  are  things, 
too,  that  are  achievable  and  desirable. 

And  to  the  extent  that  Socialism  is 
an  antidote  to  and  a  check  upon  exces- 
sive individualism  and  holds  up  to  a 
busy  and  self -centered  and  far  from 
perfect  world,  grievances  to  be  rem- 
edied, wrongs  to  be  righted,  ideals  to 
be  striven  for,  it  is  a  force  distinctly  for 
good. 


Frenzied  Liberty  145 

Still  less  do  I  mean  to  reflect  upon 
the  labor  union  movement,  which  I  re- 
gard as  an  absolutely  necessary  element 
in  the  scheme  of  our  economic  life.  Its 
leaders  have  acted  with  admirable  pa- 
triotism in  this  crisis  of  the  Nation,  and 
on  the  whole  have  been  a  factor  against 
extreme  tendencies  and  irrational  aspi- 
rations. 

Trades  unions  have  not  only  come  to 
stay,  but  they  are  bound,  I  think,  to 
become  an  increasingly  potent  factor  in 
our  industrial  life.  I  believe  that  the 
most  effective  preventive  agairust  ex- 
treme State  Socialism  is  frank,  free  and 
far-reaching  co-operation  between  busi- 
ness and  trades  unions  sobered  and 
broadened  increasingly  by  enhanced 
opportunities,  rights  and  responsibili- 
ties. 

And  I  believe  that  a  further  and 
highly  important  element  which  can  be 


146  Right  Above  Race 

counted  upon  in  this  country  to  stand 
against  extreme  and  destructive  tend- 
encies is  the  bulk  of  the  men  and 
women  who  are  engaged  in  the  nation's 
greatest  and  most  vital  interest,  agri- 
culture, provided  that  the  persistent 
agitation  of  the  demagogue  among  the 
farming  population  is  adequately  met 
and  that  due  and  timely  heed  and  sat- 
isfaction are  given  to  their  just  require- 
ments and  aspirations. 


Business  must  not  deal  grudgingly 
with  labor.  We  business  men  must  not 
look  upon  labor  unrest  and  aspirations 
as  temporary  "troubles,"  as  a  passing 
phase,  but  we  must  give  to  labor  will- 
ing and  liberal  recognition  as  partner 
with  capital.  We  must  under  all  cir- 
cumstances pay  as  a  minimum  a  decent 


Frenzied  Liberty  147 

living  wage  to  everyone  who  works  for 
a  living.  We  must  devise  means  to 
cope  with  the  problem  of  unemploy- 
ment and  to  meet  the  dread  advent  of 
sickness,  incapacity  and  old  age  in  the 
ease  of  those  whose  means  do  not  per- 
mit them  to  provide  for  a  rainy  day. 

We  must  bridge  the  gulf  which  now 
separates  the  employer  and  the  em- 
ployee, the  business  man  and  the.  farmer, 
if  the  existing  order  of  civilization  is 
to  persist.  We  must  welcome  progress 
and  seek  to  further  social  justice.  We 
must  translate  into  effective  action  our 
sympathy  for  and  our  recognition  of 
the  rights  of  those  whose  life,  in  too 
many  cases,  is  now  a  hard  and  weary 
struggle  to  make  both  ends  meet,  and 
who  too  often  are  oppressed  by  the 
gnawing  care  of  how  to  find  the  where- 
withal to  provide  for  themselves  and 
their   families.     We   must,   by   deeds. 


148  Right  Above  Race 

demonstrate  convincingly  the  genuine- 
ness of  our  desire  to  see  their  burden 
lightened. 

We  must  all  join  in  a  sincere  and  sus- 
tained effort  towards  procuring  for  the 
masses  of  the  people  more  of  ease  and 
comfort,  more  of  the  rewards  and  joys 
of  life  than  they  now  possess.  I  be- 
lieve this  is  not  only  our  duty  but  our 
interest,  because  if  we  wish  to  preserve 
the  fundamental  lines  of  our  present  so- 
cial system  we  must  leave  nothing  prac- 
ticable undone  to  make  it  more  satis- 
factory and  more  inviting  than  it  is  now 
to  the  vast  majority  of  those  who  toil. 
And  I  do  not  mean  those  only  who  toil 
with  their  hands,  but  also  the  profes- 
sional men,  the  men  and  women  in  mod- 
est salaried  positions,  in  short,  the  work- 
ers in  every  occupation. 

Even  before  the  war,  a  great  stirring 
and  ferment  was  going  on  in  the  land. 


Frenzied  Liberty  149 

The  people  were  groping,  seeking  for 
a  new  and  better  condition  of  things. 
The  war  has  intensified  that  movement. 
It  has  torn  great  fissures  in  the  ancient 
structure  of  our  civihzation.  To  re- 
store it  will  require  the  co-operation  of 
all  patriotic  men  of  sane  and  temperate 
views,  whatever  may  be  their  occupa- 
tion or  calling  or  political  affiliations. 

It  cannot  be  restored  just  as  it  was 
before.  The  building  must  be  rendered 
more  habitable  and  attractive  to  those 
whose  claim  for  adequate  houseroom 
cannot  be  left  unheeded,  either  justly 
or  safely.  Some  changes,  essential 
changes,  must  be  made. 

I  have  no  fear  of  the  outcome  and  of 
the  readjustment  which  must  come.  I 
have  no  fear  of  the  forces  of  freedom 
unless  they  be  ignored,  repressed  or 
falsely  and  selfishly  led. 

But  this  is  not  the  time  for  settling 


150  Right  Above  Race 

complex  social  questions.  When  your 
house  is  being  invaded  by  burglars  you 
do  not  discuss  family  questions.  Let 
us  win  the  war  first.  Nothing  else 
must  now  be  permitted  to  occupy  our 
thoughts  and  divert  our  aims. 

When  we  shall  have  attained  victory 
and  peace,  then  will  be  the  time  for  us 
to  sit  down  and  reason  together  and 
make  such  changes  in  political  and  so- 
cial conditions  as,  after  full  and  fair  dis- 
cussion, free  from  heat  and  passion,  the 
enlightened  public  opinion  of  the  coun- 
try deems  requisite. 


II 

THE  MYTH  OF 
*A  RICH  MAN'S  WAR' 


SINCE  Pacifism  and  semi-seditious 
agitation  have  become  both  un- 
popular and  risky,  the  propagandists  of 
disunion  have  been  at  pains  in  endeav- 
oring to  insidiously  affect  public  senti- 
ment by  spreading  the  fiction  that 
America's  entrance  into  the  war  was  fo- 
mented by  "big  business"  from  selfish 
reasons  and  for  the  purpose  of  gain. 
In  the  same  line  of  thought  and  purpose 
they  proclaim  that  this  is  "a  rich  man's 
war  and  a  poor  man's  fight"  and  that 
wealth  is  being  taxed  here  with  undue 

151 


152  Right  Above  Race 

leniency  as  compared  to  the  burden 
laid  upon  it  in  other  countries. 

These  assertions  are  in  flat  contra- 
diction to  the  facts : 

Nothing  is  plainer  than  that  business 
and  business  men  had  everything  to 
gain  by  preserving  the  conditions  which 
existed  during  the  two  and  a  half  years 
prior  to  April,  1917,  under  which  many 
of  them  made  very  large  profits  by  fur- 
nishing supplies,  provisions  and  finan- 
cial aid  to  the  Allied  nations,  taxes  were 
light  and  this  country  was  rapidly  be- 
coming the  great  economic  reservoir  of 
the  world. 

Nothing  is  plainer  than  that  any  sane 
business  man  in  this  country  must  have 
foreseen  that  if  America  entered  the 
war  these  profits  would  be  immensely 
reduced,  and  some  of  them  cut  off  en- 
tirely, because  our  Government  would 
step  in  and  take  charge;  that  it  would 


Myth  of  ''a  Rich  Man's  War"     153 

cut  prices  right  and  left,  as  in  fact  it 
has  done ;  that  enormous  burdens  of  tax- 
ation would  have  to  be  imposed,  the  bulk 
of  which  would  naturally  be  borne  by 
the  well-to-do;  in  short,  that  the  un- 
precedented golden  flow  into  the  coffers 
of  business  was  bound  to  stop  with  our 
joining  the  war;  or,  at  any  rate,  to  be 
much  diminished. 

The  best  indication  of  the  state  of 
feeling  of  the  financial  community  is 
usually  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange. 
Well,  every  time  a  ship  with  Americans 
on  board  was  sunk  by  a  German  sub- 
marine in  the  period  preceding  our  en- 
trance into  the  war,  the  stock  market 
shivered  and  prices  declined. 

When,  a  little  over  a  year  ago.  Secre- 
tary Lansing  declared  that  we  were 
"on  the  verge  of  war,"  a  tremendous 
smash  in  prices  took  place  on  the  Stock 
Exchange.     That  does  not  look,  does 


154  Right  Above  Race 

it,  as  if  rich  men  were  particularly  eager 
to  bring  on  war  or  cheered  by  the  pros- 
pect of  having  war? 

But,  it  is  said,  the  big  financiers  of 
New  York  were  afraid  that  the  money 
loaned  by  them  to  the  Allied  nations 
might  be  lost  if  these  nations  were  de- 
feated, and  therefore  they  manoeuvred 
to  get  America  into  the  war  in  order  to 
save  their  investments.  A  moment's 
reflection  will  show  the  utter  absurdity 
of  that  charge. 

American  bankers  have  loaned  to  the 
Allied  nations — almost  entirely  to  the 
two  strongest  and  wealthiest  among 
them,  France  and  England — about  two 
billions  of  dollars  since  the  war  started 
in  1914. 

These  two  billions  of  dollars  of  Allied 
bonds  are  not  held,  however,  in  the 
coffers  of  Eastern  bankers,  but  have 
been  distributed  throughout  the  coun- 


Myth  of  "a  Rich  Man's  War"    155 

try  and  are  being  owned  by  thousands 
of  banks  and  other  corporations  and 
individuals. 

Moreover,  they  form  an  insignificant 
portion  of  the  total  debts  of  the  Allied 
nations;  they  are  offset  a  hundredfold 
by  their  total  assets.  Even  if  those  na- 
tions were  to  have  lost  the  war  it  is  ut- 
terly inconceivable  that  they  would  ever 
have  defaulted  upon  that  particular  por- 
tion of  their  debt,  because,  being  their 
foreign  debt,  it  has  a  special  standing 
and  intrinsic  security. 

It  is  upon  the  punctual  payment  of 
its  foreign  obligations  that  a  nation's 
credit  in  the  markets  of  the  world 
largely  depends,  and  the  maintenance 
of  their  world  credit  was  and  is  abso- 
lutely vital  to  England  and  France. 
Furthermore,  the  greater  portion  of 
these  obligations  is  secured  by  the  de- 
posit of  collateral  in  the  shape  of  Amer- 


156  Right  Above  Race 

ican  railroad  and  other  bonds,  etc., 
which  are  more  than  sufficient  in  value 
to  cover  the  debt. 

But  let  us  assume  for  argument's 
sake  that  the  Allies  had  been  defeated 
and  had  defaulted,  for  the  time  being, 
upon  these  foreign  debts ;  let  us  assume 
that  the  entire  amount  of  Allied  bonds 
placed  in  America  had  been  held  by- 
rich  men  in  New  York  and  the  East 
instead  of  being  distributed,  as  it  is, 
throughout  the  country.  Why,  is  it  not 
perfectly  manifest  that  a  single  year's 
American  war  taxation  and  reduction 
of  profits  would  take  out  of  the  pockets 
of  such  assumed  holders  a  vastly  greater 
sum  than  any  possible  loss  they  could 
have  suffered  by  a  default  on  their  Al- 
lied bonds,  not  to  mention  the  heavy 
taxation  which  is  bound  to  follow  the 
war  for  years  to  come  and  the  shrink- 
age of  fortunes  through  the  decline  of 


Mijth  of  ''a  Rich  3Ian's  War''     157 

all  American  securities  in  consequence 
of  our  entrance  into  the  war? 

Is  it  not  perfectly  manifest  to  the 
meanest  understanding  that  any  busi- 
ness man  fomenting  our  entrance  into 
the  war  for  the  purpose  of  gain  must 
have  been  entirely  bereft  of  his  senses 
and  would  have  been  a  fit  subject  for 
the  appointment  of  a  guardian  to  take 
care  of  himself  and  his  affairs? 

II 

Now  as  to  the  allegations  concerning 
taxation: 

1.  The  largest. incomes  are  taxed  far 
more  heavily  here  than  anywhere  else 
in  the  world. 

The  maximum  rate  of  income  taxa- 
tion here  is  67  per  cent.  In  England  it 
is  42yL>  per  cent.  Ours  is  therefore  50 
per  cent,  higher  than  England's  and  the 
rate  in  England  is  the  highest  prevail- 


158  Right  Above  Race 

ing  anywhere  in  Europe.  Neither  re- 
publican France  nor  democratic  Eng- 
land— containing  in  their  cabinets  So- 
cialists and  representatives  of  labor — 
nor  autocratic  Germany  have  an  income 
tax  rate  anywhere  near  as  high  as  our 
maximum  rate.  And  in  addition  to  the 
federal  tax  we  must  bear  in  mind  our 
state  and  municipal  taxes. 

2.  Moderate  and  small  incomes,  on 
the  other  hand,  are  subject  to  a  far 
smaller  rate  of  taxation  here  than  in 
England. 

In  America,  incomes  of  married  men 
up  to  $2,000  are  not  subject  to  any  fed- 
eral income  tax  at  all. 

% 

In  England  the  tax  on  incomes  of  $1^000  is  4% 
"  "  "  "  "  1,500  is  6% 
"      "     "  "         "     2,000  is  7% 

(These  are  the  rates  if  the  income  is 
derived  from  salaries  or  wages;  they  are 


Myth  of  ''a  Rich  Man's  War'     159 

still  higher  if  the  income  is  derived  from 
rents  or  investments.) 

The  English  scale  of  taxation  on  in- 
comes of,  say,  $3,000,  $5,000,  $10,000 
and  $15,000,  respectively  averages  as 
follows,  as  compared  to  the  American 
rates  for  married  men : 

In  In 

England  America 

Income  tax  rate  on  $3,000 .  .    14%  %  of  1  % 
Income  tax  rate  on     5,000..    16%  ^V2% 

Income  tax  rate  on  10,000.  .    20%  3l/2% 

Income  tax  rate  on  15,000.  .25%  5% 

(If  we  add  the  so-called  "occupa- 
tional" tax,  our  total  taxation  on  in- 
comes of  $10,000  is  6%  per  cent.,  and 
on  incomes  of  $15,000,  9%  per  cent.) 

In  other  words,  our  income  taxation 
is  more  democratic  than  that  of  any 
other  country,  in  that  the  largest  in- 
comes are  taxed  much  more  heavily,  and 
the  small  and  moderate  incomes  much 
more  lightly  than  anywhere  else,  and 


160  Right  Above  Race 

incomes  up  to  $2,000  for  married  men 
not  taxed  at  all. 

3.  It  is-  true,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
on  very  large  incomes  as  distinguished 
from  the  largest  incomes,  our  income 
tax  is  somewhat  lower  than  the  Eng- 
lish tax,  but  the  difference  by  which  our 
tax  is  lower  than  the  English  tax  is  in- 
comparably more  pronounced  in  the 
case  of  small  and  moderate  incomes 
than  of  large  incomes.  Moreover,  if 
we  add  to  our  income  tax  our  so-called 
excess  profit  tax,  which  is  merely  an 
additional  income  tax  on  earnings  de- 
rived from  business,  we  shall  find  that 
the  total  tax  to  which  rich  men  are  sub- 
ject is  in  the  great  majority  of  cases 
heavier  here  than  in  England  or  any- 
where else. 

4.  It  is  likewise  true  that  the  Eng- 
lish war  excess  profit  tax  is  80  per  cent, 
(less  various  offsets  and  allowances) 


Myth  of  ''a  Rich  Man's  War"     161 

whilst  our  so-called  excess  profit  tax 
ranges  from  20  per  cent,  to  60  per  cent. 
But  it  is  entirely  misleading  to  base 
a  conclusion  as  to  the  relative  heaviness 
of  the  American  and  British  tax  merely 
on  a  comparison  of  the  rates,  because 
the  English  tax  is  assessed  on  a  wholly 
different  basis  from  the  American  tax. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  Congress  has  esti- 
mated that  the  20  per  cent,  to  60 
per  cent,  tax  on  the  American  basis 
will  produce  approximately  the  same 
amount  in  dollars  and  cents  as  the  80 
per  cent,  tax  is  calculated  to  produce  in 
England.  ( I  know  I  shall  be  answered 
that  we  have  twice  the  population  of 
England  and  twice  the  wealth.  But  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  a  far  larger 
proportion  of  our  wealth  is  represented 
by  farms  and  other  non-industrial  prop- 
erty and  that  a  far  larger  proportion  of 
our  people  than  of  the  British  people 


162  Right  Above  Race 

are  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits 
which  are  not  affected  by  the  excess 
profit  tax.  I  believe  it  will  be  found 
that  the  total  wealth  employed  in  busi- 
ness in  America  is  not  so  greatly  su- 
perior to  the  total  wealth  similarly  em- 
ployed by  Great  Britain.) 

The  American  excess  profit  law  so- 
called  taooes  all  profits  derived  from 
business  over  and  above  a  certain  mod- 
erate percentage,  regardless  of  whether 
or  not  such  profits  are  the  result  of  war 
conditions.  The  American  tax  is  a 
general  tax  on  income  derived  from 
business,  in  addition  to  the  regular  in- 
come tax.  The  English  tax  applies 
only  to  excess  war  profits;  that  is,  only 
to  the  sum  by  which  profits  in  the  war 
years  exceed  the  average  profits  on  the 
three  years  preceding  the  war,  which  in 
England  were  years  of  great  prosperity. 

In  other  words,  the  English  tax  is 


3l2jth  of  ''a  Rich  Man's  War'     163 

nominally  higher  than  ours,  but  it  ap- 
plies only  to  war  profits.  The  normal 
profits  of  business,  i.e.,  the  profits  which 
business  used  to  make  in  peace  time, 
are  exempted  in  England.  There,  only 
the  excess  over  peace  profits  is  taxed. 
Our  tax,  on  the  contrary,  applies  to  all 
profits  over  and  above  a  very  moderate 
rate  on  the  money  invested  in  business. 
In  short,  our  law-makers  have  de- 
creed that  normal  business  profits  are 
taxed  here  much  more  heavily  than  in 
England,  while  direct  war  profits  are 
taxed  less  heavily.  You  will  agree  with 
me  in  questioning  both  the  logic  and  the 
justice  of  that  method.  It  would  seem 
that  it  would  be  both  fairer  and  wiser 
and  more  in  accord  with  public  senti- 
ment if  the  tax  on  business  in  general 
were  decreased  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
an  increased  tax  were  imposed  on  spe- 
cific war  profits. 


164  Right  Above  Race 

5.  Our  federal  inheritance  tax  is  far 
higher  than  in  England  or  anywhere 
else.  The  maximum  rate  here  on  direct 
descendants  is  27%  per  cent,  as  against 
20  per  cent,  in  England.  In  addition 
we  have  State  inheritance  taxes  which 
do  not  exist  in  England. 

6.  Of  her  actual  war  expenditures 
(exclusive  of  loans  to  her  Allies  and 
interest  on  war  loans),  England  has 
raised  for  the  first  three  years  of  the 
war  an  average  of  less  than  15  per  cent, 
by  taxation  (France  and  Germany  far 
less) ,  while  America  is  about  to  raise  by 
taxation  a  percentage  approximating 
probably  40  per  cent.  ( exclusive  of  loans 
to  the  Allied  nations  and  of  the  amount 
to  be  invested  in  mercantile  ships,  which, 
being  a  productive  investment,  cannot 
properly  be  classed  among  war  expendi- 
tures). 


Myth  of  ''a  Rich  Man's  War"     165 
III 

Much  is  being  said  about  the  plausi- 
ble sounding  contention  that  because  a 
portion  of  the  young  manhood  of  the 
Nation  has  been  conscripted,  therefore 
money  also  must  be  conscripted.  Why, 
that  is  the  very  thing  the  Government 
has  been  doing.  It  has  conscripted  a 
portion,  a  relatively  small  portion,  of 
the  men  of  the  Nation.  It  has  con- 
scripted a  portion,  a  large  portion,  of 
the  incomes  of  the  Nation.  If  it  went 
too  far  in  conscripting  men,  the  coun- 
try would  be  crippled.  If  it  went  too 
far  in  conscripting  incomes  and  earn- 
ings, the  country  would  likewise  be  crip- 
pled. 

Those  who  would  go  further  and  con- 
script not  only  incomes  but  capital,  I 
would  ask  to  answer  the  riddle  not  only 
in  what  equitable  and  practicable  man- 


166  Right  Above  Race 

ner  they  would  do  it,*  but  what  the 
Nation  would  gain  by  it? 

Only  a  trifling  fraction  of  a  man's 
property  is  held  in  cash.  If  they  con- 
script a  certain  percentage  of  his  posses- 
sions in  stocks  and  bonds,  what  would 
the  Government  do  with  them? 

Keep  them?  That  would  not  answer 
its  purpose,  because  the  Government 
wants  cash,  not  securities. 

Sell  them?  Who  is  to  buy  them 
when  everyone's  funds  are  depleted? 

If  they  conscript  a  certain  percentage 
of  a  man's  real  estate  or  mine  or  farm  or 
factory,  how  is  that  to  be  expressed  and 
converted  into  cash? 

*  It  is  true  that  a  few  years  ago  a  capital  levy 
was  made  in  Germany,  but  the  percentage  of 
that  levy  was  so  small  as  to  actually  amount  to 
no  more  than  an  additional  income  tax,  and 
that  at  a  time  when  the  regular  income  tax  in 
Germany  was  very  moderate  as  measured  by  the 
present  standards  of  income  taxation. 


Myth  of  ''a  Rich  Man's  War"     167 

Are  conscripted  assets  to  be  used  as  a 
basis  for  the  issue  of  Federal  Reserve 
Bank  Notes?  That  would  mean  gross 
inflation  with  all  its  attendant  evils, 
dangers  and  deceptions. 

Would  they  repudiate  a  percentage 
of  the  National  debt?  Repudiation  is 
no  less  dishonorable  in  a  people  than  in 
an  individual,  and  the  penalty  for  fail- 
ure to  respect  the  sanctity  of  obligations 
is  no  different  for  a  nation  than  for  an 
individual. 

The  fact  is  that  the  Government 
would  gain  nothing  in  the  process  of 
capital  conscription  and  the  countiy 
would  be  thrown  into  chaos  for  the  time 
being.  The  man  who  has  saved  would 
be  penahzed;  he  who  has  wasted  would 
be  favored.  Thrift  and  constructive 
effort,  resulting  in  the  needful  and 
fructifying    accumulation    of    capital 


168  Right  Above  Race 

would  be  arrested  and  lastingly  discour- 
aged. 

I  can  understand  the  crude  notion  of 
the  man  who  would  divide  all  posses- 
sions equally.  There  would  be  mighty 
little  coming  to  anyone  by  such  distri- 
bution and  it  is,  of  course,  an  utterly 
impossible  thing  to  do,  but  it  is  an  un- 
derstandable notion.  But.  by  the  con- 
fiscation of  capital  for  Government  use 
neither  the  Government  nor  any  indi- 
vidual would  be  benefited. 

A  vigorously  progressive  income 
tax  is  both  economically  and  socially 
sound.  A  capital  tax  is  wholly  un- 
sound and  economically  destructive. 
It  may  nevertheless  become  necessary 
in  the  case  of  some  of  the  belligerent 
countries  to  resort  to  this  expedient, 
but  I  can  conceive  of  no  situation  likely 
to  arise  which  would  make  it  necessary 
or    advisable    in   this    country.     More 


Myth  of  ''a  Rich  Man's  War"     169 

than  ever  would  such  a  tax  be  harmful 
in  times  of  war  and  post-bellum  recon- 
struction, when  bej^ond  almost  all  other 
things  it  is  essential  to  stimulate  pro- 
duction and  promote  thrift,  and  when 
everything  which  tends  to  have  the  op- 
posite effect  should  be  rigorously  re- 
jected as  detrimental  to  the  Nation's 
strength  and  well-being. 

There  is  an  astonishing  lot  of  hazy 
thinking  on  the  subject  of  the  uses  of 
capital  in  the  hands  of  its  owners.  The 
rich  man  can  only  spend  a  relatively 
small  sum  of  money  unproductively  or 
selfishly.  The  money  that  it  is  in  his 
power  to  actually  waste  is  exceedingly 
limited.  The  bulk  of  what  he  has  must 
be  spent  and  used  for  productive  pur- 
poses, just  as  would  be  the  case  if  it 
were  spent  by  the  Government,  with 
this  difference,  however,  that,  generally 
speaking,  the  individual  is  more  pains- 


170  Right  Above  Race 

taking  and  discriminating  in  the  use  of 
his  funds  and  at  the  same  time  bolder, 
more  imaginative,  enterprising  and 
constructive  than  the  Government  with 
its  necessarily  bureaucratic  and  routine 
regime  possibly  could  be.  Money  in 
the  hands  of  the  individual  is  continu- 
ously and  feverishly  on  the  search  for 
opportunities,  i.e.,  for  creative  and  pro- 
ductive use.  In  the  hands  of  the  Gov- 
ernment it  is  apt  to  lose  a  good  deal  of 
its  fructifying  energy  and  ceaseless 
striving  and  to  sink  instead  into  placid 
and  somnolent  repose. 

Taxation  presupposes  earnings. 
Our  credit  structure  is  based  upon  val- 
ues, and  values  are  largely  determined 
by  earnings.  Shrinkage  of  values  nec- 
essarily affects  our  capacity  to  provide 
the  Government  with  the  sinews  of  war. 

There  need  not  be  and  there  should 
not  be  any  conflict  between  profits  and 


Myth  of  ''a  Rich  Man's  War'     171 

patriotism.  I  am  utterly  opposed  to 
those  who  would  utilize  their  country's 
war  as  a  means  to  enrich  themselves. 
Extortionate  profits  must  not  be  toler- 
ated, but,  on  the  other  hand,  there 
should  be  a  reasonably  liberal  disposi- 
tion toward  business  and  a  willingness 
to  see  it  make  substantial  earnings.  To 
deny  this  is  to  deny  human  nature. 

Men  will  give  their  lives  to  their  coun- 
try as  a  matter  of  plain  and  natural 
duty;  men,  without  a  moment's  hesita- 
tion, will  quit  their  business  and  devote 
their  entire  time  and  energy  and  effort 
to  the  affairs  of  the  Nation,  as  a  gi-eat 
many  have  done  and  every  one  of 
us  stands  ready  to  do,  without  any 
thought  of  compensation.  But,  gener- 
ally speaking,  men  will  not  take  busi- 
ness risks,  will  not  venture,  will  not  be 
enterprising  and  constructive,  will  not 
take  upon  themselves  the  responsibili- 


172  Right  Above  Race 

ties,  the  chance  of  loss,  the  strain,  the 
wear  and  tear  and  worry  and  care  of 
intense  business  activity  if  they  do  not 
have  the  prospect  of  adequate  monetary 
reward,  even  though  a  large  part  of 
that  reward  is  taken  away  again  in  the 
shape  of  taxation. 

IV 

Reverting  now  to  the  subject  of  the 
conscription  of  men,  I  know  I  speak 
the  sentiment  of  all  those  beyond  the 
years  of  young  manhood  when  I  say 
that  there  is  not  one  of  us  worthy  of  the 
name  of  a  man  who  would  not  willingly 
go  to  fight  if  the  country  needed  or 
wanted  us  to  fight.  But  the  country 
does  not  want  or  call  its  entire  manhood 
to  fight.  It  does  not  even  call  anywhere 
near  its  entire  young  manhood.  It  has 
called,  or  intends  to  call  in  the  imme- 


Myth  of  ''a  Rich  Man's  War'     173 

diate  future,  perhaps  25  per  cent,  of  its 
men  between  20  and  30  years  of  age, 
which  means  probably  about  4  per  cent, 
of  its  total  male  population  of  all  ages. 
In  other  words,  it  calls  only  for  such 
number  of  men  as  appears  indicated 
by  the  needs  of  the  country,  and  as  cor- 
responds to  a  prudent  estimate  of  the 
task  before  it. 

I  am  far  from  meaning  to  compare 
the  loss  of  income  or  profits  with  the 
risk  of  life  or  health  to  which  men  on 
the  firing  line  are  exposed,  or  to  com- 
pare financial  sacrifices  to  those  will- 
ingly and  proudly  borne  by  the  youth 
of  our  land  and  shared  by  those  near 
and  dear  to  them.  But  I  do  believe  it 
to  be  a  just  contention — not  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  individual,  but  of  the  wel- 
fare of  the  community — that  the  same 
principle  which  is  applied  in  the  case 
of  the  conscription  of  men  should  hold 


174  Bight  Above  Race 

good  for  the  conscription  of  income  or 
profits;  i.e.,  so  much  thereof  should  be 
taken  by  the  State  as  is  required  by  a 
prudent  estimate  of  the  task  before  it 
and  as  best  promotes  the  accomphsh- 
ment  of  that  task,  bearing  in  mind  that 
the  preservation  of  the  country's  eco- 
nomic power  is  next  in  importance  for 
winning  the  war  to  its  military  power. 
Vindictiveness,  extremist  theories  and 
demagogism  ought  to  have  no  place  in 
arriving  at  that  estimate. 

I  have  no  patience  with  or  tolerance 
for  the  "war  profiteer,"  as  the  term  is 
understood.  The  "war  hog"  is  a  nui- 
sance and  an  ignominy.  He  should  be 
dealt  with  just  as  drastically  as  is  pos- 
sible without  doing  damage  to  national 
interests  in  the  process.  But  neither 
have  I  patience  with  or  tolerance  for 
the  man  who  would  use  his  country's 
war   as   a  means  to  promote  his  pet 


Myth  of  "a  Rich  Man's  War'     175 

theories  or  his  political  fortunes  at  the 
expense  of  national  unity  at  a  time 
when  we  should  all  be  united  in  mutual 
good  will  and  co-operative  effort. 

And  if  we  do  talk  about  the  formula, 
"conscription  of  men — conscription  of 
wealth,"  let  it  be  understood  that  we 
have  called  less  than  5  per  cent,  of  the 
Nation's  entire  male  population,  but 
have  called  from  incomes,  business  prof- 
its and  other  imposts  falling  princi- 
pally on  the  well-to-do,  approximately 
90  per  cent,  of  our  war  taxation,  not 
to  mention  the  contribution  to  the  Red 
Cross,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  other  war 
relief  activities. 

Let  me  add  in  passing  that  the  chil- 
dren of  the  well-to-do  have  been  taken 
for  the  war  in  proportionately  greater 
numbers  than  the  children  of  the  poor, 
because  those  young  men  who  are 
needed  at  home  to  support  dependents 


176  Right  Above  Race 

or  to  maintain  essential  war  industries 
are  exempted  from  the  draft. 

Moreover,  to  an  overwhelming  de- 
gree the  sons  of  the  well-to-do  have  not 
waited  to  be  conscripted.  They  have 
volunteered  in  masses — a  far  greater 
percentage  of  them  than  those  in  less 
advantageous  circumstances.  That  is 
merely  as  it  should  be.  Having  greater 
advantages,  they  have  corresponding 
duties.  Not  having  dependents  to  take 
care  of,  they  can  better  afford  to  volun- 
teer than  those  less  fortunately  situ- 
ated. 

But  the  patriotic  zeal  of  the  sons  of 
the  well-to-do  in  coming  forward  to  of- 
fer their  lives  to  the  country  does  give 
a  doubly  false  and  sickening  sound  to 
the  ranting  of  the  agitator  who  would 
arouse  class  hatred — who  calls  this  "a 
rich  man's  war  and  a  poor  man's  fight" 
when  an  overwhelming  percentage  of 


Myth  of  ''a  Rich  Man's  War'     111 

the  sons  of  the  men  of  means  have 
eagerly  and  freely  offered  themselves 
for  military  service,  when  the  draft  ex- 
emption regulations,  discriminate  not, 
as  in  former  wars,  in  favor  of  the  rich 
man's  son  hut  in  favor  of  the  poor  wom- 
an's son,  and  when  capital  and  business 
pay  more  than  four-fifths  of  our  war 
taxation  directly  and  a  large  share  of 
the  remaining  one-fifth  indirectly. 

I  do  not  say  all  this  to  plead  for  a 
reduction  of  the  taxation  on  wealth,  or 
in  order  to  urge  that  no  additional  taxes 
be  imposed  on  wealth  if  need  be. 
There  is  no  limit  to  the  burden  which, 
in  time  of  stress  and  strain,  those  must 
be  willing  to  bear  who  can  afford  it, 
except  only  that  limit  which  is  imposed 
by  the  consideration  that  taxation  must 
not  reach  a  point  where  the  business 
activity  of  the  country  becomes  crip- 
pled, and  its  economic  equihbrium  is 


178  Right  Above  Race 

thrown  out  of  gear,  because  that  would 
harm  every  element  of  the  common- 
wealth and  diminish  the  war-making  ca- 
pacity of  the  Nation. 


The  question  of  the  individual  is  not 
the  one  that  counts.  The  question  is 
not  what  sacrifices  capital  should  and 
would  be  willing  to  bear  if  called  upon, 
but  what  taxes  it  is  to  the  public  advan- 
tage to  impose. 

Taxation  must  be  sound  and  wise  and 
scientific,  and  cannot  be  laid  in  a  hap- 
hazard way  or  on  impulse  or  according 
to  considerations  of  politics.  Other- 
wise, the  whole  country  will  suffer. 
History  has  shown  over  and  over  again 
that  the  laws  of  economics  cannot  be  de- 
fied with  impunity  and  that  the  result- 


Myth  of  "a  Rich  Man's  War'     179 

ing  penalty  falls  upon  all  sections  and 
classes. 

I  realize  but  too  well  that  the  burden 
of  the  abnormally  high  cost  of  living, 
caused  largely  by  the  war,  weighs  heav- 
ily indeed  upon  wage  earners  and  still 
more  upon  men  and  women  with  mod- 
erate salaries.  I  yield  to  no  one  in  my 
desire  to  see  everything  done  that  is 
practicable  to  have  that  burden  light- 
ened. But  excessive  taxation  on  cap- 
ital will  not  accomplish  that;  on  the 
contrary,  it  will  rather  tend  to  intensify 
the  trouble. 

We  men  of  business  are  ready  and 
willing  to  be  taxed  in  this  emergency 
to  the  very  limit  of  our  ability,  and  to 
make  contributions  to  war  relief  work 
and  other  good  causes,  without  stint. 
The  fact  is  that,  generally  speaking, 
capital  engaged  in  business  is  now  being 


180  Right  Above  Race 

taxed  in  America  more  heavily  than 
anywhere  else  in  the  world.  We  are 
not  complaining  about  this;  we  do  not 
say  that  it  may  not  become  necessary 
to  impose  still  further  taxes ;  we  are  not 
whimpering  and  squealing  and  agitat- 
ing, but — we  do  want  the  people  to 
know  what  are  the  present  facts,  and  we 
ask  them  not  to  give  heed  to  the  dema- 
gogue who  would  make  them  believe 
that  we  are  escaping  our  share  of  the 
common  burden. 

May  I  hope  that  I  have  measurably 
succeeded  in  demonstrating  that  the  al- 
legations with  which  the  propagandists 
of  disunion  have  been  assailing  the  pub- 
lic mind  are  without  foundation  in  fact. 
And  may  I  add,  in  conclusion,  that  the 
charge  of  "big  business"  having  fo- 
mented our  entrance  into  the  war  is 
one*  which,  apart  from  its  intrinsic  ab- 
surdity, is  a  hateful  calumny.     Busi- 


3Iyth  of  "a  Rich  Mans  War'     181 

ness  men,  great  or  small,  are  no  differ- 
ent from  other  Americans,  and  we  re- 
ject the  thought  that  any  American, 
rich  or  poor,  would  be  capable  of  the 
hideous  and  dastardly  plot  to  bring 
upon  his  country  the  sorrows  and  suf- 
ferings of  war  in  order  to  enrich  him- 
self. 

Business  men  are  bound  to  be  exceed- 
ingly heavy  financial  losers  through 
America's  entrance  into  the  war. 
Every  element  of  self-interest  should 
have  caused  them  to  use  their  utmost 
efforts  to  preserve  America's  neutral- 
ity from  which  they  drew  so  much  profit 
during  the  two  and  a  half  years  before 
April,  1917.  Every  consideration  of 
personal  advantage  commanded  men  of 
affairs  to  stand  with  and  support  the 
agitation  of  the  "peace-at-any-price" 
party.  They  spurned  such  ignoble 
reasoning;  they  rejected  that  affihation; 


182  Right  Above  Race 

they  stood  for  war  when  it  was  no  longer 
possible,  with  safety  and  honor,  to  main- 
tain peace,  because  they  are  patriotic 
citizens  first  and  business  men  after- 
ward. 

The  insinuation  that  "big  business*' 
had  any  share  in  influencing  our  Gov- 
ernment's decision  to  enter  the  war  is  an 
insult  to  the  President  and  Congress,  a 
libel  on  American  citizenship,  and  a  ma- 
licious perversion  or  ignorant  miscon- 
ception of  the  facts.  Those  who  con- 
tinue to  circulate  that  insinuation  lay 
themselves  open  to  just  suspicion  of 
their  motives  and  should  receive  neither 
credence  nor  tolerance. 


DUE  DATE 


,?P.^y^^*^  UNIVERSITY 

'iiiiii'!i"iii|i(i|r'fi"'iii'|' 


0026666847 


940.91 


Kl?4 


